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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 












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BELFORD, CLARKE CO, 

CHICAGO NEW YORK SAN FRANCISCO 


















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TWIXT LOVE AND LAW 










’TWIXT LOVE AND LAW 


% Wovtl 


BY 

ANNIE JENNESS MILLER 

EDITOR OF “dress” 




CHICAGO, NEW YORK, AND SAN FRANCISCO 
BELFORD, CLARKE & COMPANY 
Publishers 


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COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY 

BELFORD, CLARKE & CO. 



E. B. Sheldon & Co., Electrotypers and Printers, New Haven, Conn. 


TWIXT LOVE AND LAW. 


CHAPTER I. 

“ By the way, Miss Blaine, have you 
read — ” 

“ Don’t, Mr. Derwent, I beg, ” implored 
the girl, “ I have not read the latest novel, 
nor the morning paper.” 

“ Caught again, Teddy ! The astonishing 
faculty which you have for putting your foot 
into things amounts to genius,” said provok-. 
ing Burt Sloane. “Really, one would not 
expect even you, my boy, to be so obtuse, 
when everybody knows that Miss Blaine is a 
sceptic concerning all things.” 

“ But I didn’t,” complained Teddy. “ I am 
never given the chance. The facts are — ” 

“That you’re a good fellow, Teddy, but 
slow.” 


5 


6 ’ Twixt Love and Lazv. 

“ But I am not supposed to know what Miss 
Blaine does not approve unless she tells me,” 
protested the young man ; “ and beside, every- 
body reads the latest novel,” — appealing to 
her. 

“ Yes, I suppose so,” admitted Margaret 
Blaine, ready to drop the subject because she 
felt that Yandell was waiting for her answer, 
and anticipating an argument between her- 
self and the others. 

“ But why should you not read novels. Miss 
Blaine ? ” urged Teddy. “ I can understand 
about the newspaper, but. there are novels 
orthodox as the creeds.” 

Margaret was conscious of a pair of dark, 
searching, indescribable eyes. 

“ Nonsense, Mr. Derwent,” she said, “ I 
am a wretched heretic. Mr. Sloane has just 
given you a composite of my virtues. Beside,” 
playfully rebuking his curiosity, what does 
it matter whether one person or another 
turns off the highway of popular opinion 
while the crowd remains ? ” 

“ Of course it does not matter about every- 
body,” replied the honest youth, “ but you are 


^ Twixt Love and Law. 


7 

different ; one always expects you to have 
opinions worth hearing.” 

The others laughed. 

Again, Teddy,” groaned Burt Sloane. 

But Margaret answered gently, knowing 
that the boy was honestly attached to her, and 
meant a compliment. 

“ I have opinions, certainly, Teddy, but 
they are of little consequence.” 

She had called him by his name, feeling 
that to do so would take the sting out of Burt 
Sloane’s raillery. Nevertheless, she was 
annoyed that Yandell should think it a mo- 
mentary coquetry on her part; it nettled 
her. 

“ Everything that you think and do is of 
consequence,” said the grateful Teddy, his 
voice mellowed by the first passion of his life, 
which he could not disguise when she was 
kind to hhn. 

“You are too generous;” laughed Mar- 
garet, “but I will not allow you to flatter me 
into a crime against the prejudices of my 
friends.” 

“Then let us have it out alone in the gar- 


8 'Twixt Love and Law, 

den. Come, you cannot refuse to cure iny 
dense ignorance; it is a matter of human 
charity.” 

He took a step nearer, careless of the 
others in his anxiety that she should walk 
with him through the cool, shadowy paths, 
where the dewy breath of the young aiorning 
still rested in sun-kissed iridescence upon the 
living green. 

For an instant doubt held her prisoner ; 
then moved by a swift impulse she slipped 
her slender, palpitating hand through his 
arm, saying gaily : 

“ So be it, since you are generous enough to 
spare the others.” 

Her eyes met YandelPs, and she thought 
there was a touch of disappointment in their 
depths ; the next instant, she was sure that it 
was rebuke ; but she was committed to the 
moment, and with the least perceptible 
hauteur arching her slender throat, she went 
off with the enraptured boy, who had forgot- 
ten everything except* her thrilling touch upon 
his arm. 

And why should one not suspect her of 


' Twixt Love and Law, 


9 


being a coquette — a woman of twenty-eight, 
who knew the world and the ways of men too 
well not to be aware that a tete-^-tete with 
Theodore Derwent at this moment, although 
he was five years her junior, was a direct 
invitation to speak the emotion which domi- 
nated him. 

But she was more sincere than any of them, 
Yandell excepted, gave her credit for, and 
they were no sooner out of sight than she 
withdrew her hand from Derwent’s arm, 
and said abruptly but not unkindly : 

“ Teddy, you’re a foolish boy ; you make 
the others laugh at you, and I am sorry for 
it.” 

“ I do not care for the others,” replied- the 
impulsive fellow ; “ I am lost in you ! ” 

“But that is absurd,” she hurried on.. “I 
am five calendar years older than you, and 
at least twenty years older in experience; I 
have gray hairs, genuine ones ; anything 
between us would be out of the question ; I 
am too old, if there were no other reason.” 

“You are perpetual youth to me, Mar- 
garet,” declared the passionate fellow. 


10 


'Twixt Love and Law. 


“ What do I care for years ? I defy them ! one 
or fifty against an eternity of love with you.” 

She retreated a step as he advanced, and 
put up her open hands between them to ward 
off his touch. 

“ Do not be foolish, Teddy, and spoil a 
friendship,” she said, gravely. “I am really 
fond of you in a way, but when you love me 
like that it is not reasonable.” 

“ But you know that it is the only way that 
I ever shall love you,” he said, facing her 
with dilated nostrils, like a fine animal at bay. 

“ So it seems to you now ; but in time you 
would hate me, and with just cause : besides, 
I could not feel anything for you except kind- 
ness — it seems insipid to even think of loving 
a man younger than myself ; the feeling does 
not come.” 

“ That does not prove that it never would 
come ; Margaret, Margaret, trust me ; I will 
make you love me.” 

He stretched forth his strong, athletic 
arms entreatingly. 

She shook her head. 

“ It is useless, Teddy. I do not want to 


'Twixt Love and Law. 


I 


hurt you ; but you absolutely have not the 
power to touch my life.’' 

“ You can never know unless you let me 
try,” he said, a little desperately, with an 
irresistible movement toward her. 

She clasped her hands together like one 
nerving for a struggle. 

“ Don’t make me cruel to you, ” she 
pleaded, almost piteously ; “ don’t, I pray you. 
I am thinking more of you than of myself. 
I am naturally a selfish woman, and there 
have been times when I could have done this 
wrong you ask, just to be taken out of my- 
self.” 

“ It would not be a wrong, Margaret,” he 
urged, tumultuously, the wild hope which 
her words inspired driving him on. “ Give 
yourself to me, and if I fail to win your love, 
possession will be enough.” 

It never occurred to him that her happiness 
as well as his own was at stake ; the woman’s 
side of the question never does appeal to a 
man at such a time. But she had no thought 
of yielding. 

“ It is impossible — absolutely and forever,” 


12 


'Twixt Love and Law, 


she said, sorrowfully. “ To say more will be 
cruel to us both. Do, Teddy, go away — back 
to your ship, I beg you.” 

“ Then I am rejected,” he groaned. 

“ No,” hastily interposed Margaret, “do not 
say that; you have not proposed, — I have 
warned you before the folly was committed.” 

“Then, by heaven! I will compel you. to 
reject me,” he said, vehemently, beside him- 
self with pain. 

“Teddy, Teddy,” she remonstrated, in a 
voice of deep reproach, “ why will you not let 
me save you from yourself ? who knows how 
much I wish to do it ? ” 

He laughed bitterly : “ Why should you 

care ? ” 

“ Because I know the misery of it.” 

“ You, Margaret I ” Amazement had so- 
bered him instantly. She was very pale, and 
he saw that she was struggling for composure. 

“ Yes, I,” she whispered under her breath, 
glancing around feverishly, as if in fear lest 
the very trees and shrubs, the sighing breeze 
and singing birds, should hear and repeat her 
confession. 


' Twixt Love and Law. 


13 


A great silence fell between them. 

“What an infernal brute I must seem to 
you, Margaret,” he said at length, despair- 
ingly ; “ you will never forgive me after this.” 

“ Hush, Teddy, you could not know,” she 
whispered, gently laying her hand upon his 
lips, as a mother might have done. 

He pressed his own hand over hers to keep 
it there, and fell to kissing the open palm. 

She did not rebuke the caress ; with a sigh 
of human longing her empty heart yielded to 
the momentary sweetness of his glowing vital 
sympathy. When the emotion had spent itself, 
their eyes met. 

“ You could not tell me about it ? ” he ven- 
tured, nervously. 

“ No,” sadly. 

“ Is it death 1 ” 

“ Worse, than that.” 

“ Worse .? ” 

“ Yes, more hopeless.” 

He looked at her dumbly. What could be 
worse than death ? She answered his un- 
spoken question with pale lips: 

To know that one must breathe and 


14 ’ Twixt Love and Law. 

move and speak through a dead self forever ; 
to be always yearning, yearning, for the love 
with which all the rest of nature is bursting ! 
To see the sun shine — and not feel its 
warmth ! to everywhere hear the rich voice of 
passion, and know that its fulness mocks the 
desolation of one’s own heart ! to be always 
and everywhere starved ! starved ! starved ! ” 
Her voice had risen to a wail. “ Oh ! how 
cruel it is ! ” 

She shivered in the clutch of her despair, 
and moaning, threw herself face downward 
upon the bosom of Mother Earth. 

He was beside her in a moment, saying 
simply, as children say it when their tender 
hearts are touched with the evidence of a sor- 
row which they cannot understand : 

“ I love you, I love you, I love you ! ” 

It was all that he could say, while the tem- 
pest raged and swelled within her; but when 
the last fitful gust of passion had abated, when 
the dry sobs shook and sighed and hushed, 
he reached down a pair of strong arms to 
raise and hold her against his breast. He was 


'Twixt Love and Law. 15 

no longer thinking of himself, but only of 
comforting her. 

She put her hands to his shoulders after a 
while, and pushed herself away from him 
feebly. 

“ Thank you ; I think that I will rest.” 

“ In the house ? ” 

“ No, no, not yet ! there,” pointing to a vine- 
embowered seat. “ The others must not 
know.” 

“ No, they must not know,” he repeated, 
mechanically. 

When she was seated as she had desired, 
he said, divining her wish : 

“ Perhaps you would rather that I should go 
away.” 

She looked at him wistfully. 

“ It would be better.” 

“ Forever ? ” his voice was growing tense. 

She nodded dumbly. 

“ You do not need me ? ” 

“ No,” she whispered. 

“ If you should ? ” 

She answered him mutely with a gesture. 

“ I am going,” he said, and still lingered. 


i6 'Twixt Love a?id Law. 

“ There is nothing else to be done/^ 

“ Nothing ? ” 

“ No.” 

“ Nothing, Margaret ? ” 

“ Nothing.” 

“ I could not make you — forget ? ” 

“ No.” 

“ If I were your slave — if every hour of my 
life were given to thoughts of you — you only ! 
if your happiness were my prayer morning, 
noon, and night, forever ? ” he pleaded, with 
blanching face. 

“ I could not forget through all eternity.” 

“ It is strange that both of our lives should 
be that way,” he said, in a strangled voice. 

“ It is strange,” she replied, piteously. 

“ Good-bye, Margaret.” 

“ Good-bye.” 

“ I am going.” 

“ I know it, Teddy.” 

Not to return.” 

“ No, there will be nothing to return for.” 

She sat with pathetic hands clasping each 
other, mute and tearless, listening while his 
footstep grew fainter and fainter in the dis- 


'Twixt Love and Law. 17 

tance ; then lifting her face, full of sensitive 
pain, to the sunshine which struggled through 
the interlacing branches of the trees, and the 
shadowy green of the creeping trumpet vine 
above her head, she shivered in the warm 
embrace. 

“ Poor boy ! poor, unhappy boy ! ” she said. 
2 


CHAPTER II. 


No more genial host than Colonel Conant 
could be desired. He was a man of noble 
bearing, of wide travel and general culture, 
but his most distinguished characteristic was 
the happy faculty which he had for surrounding 
himself with people who were equally delight- 
ful. Indeed, it was the colonel’s proud boast, 
his one pardonable vanity, that neither ped- 
ants nor fools partook his hospitality. 

“ They are equally bad, my dear fellow,” he 
said, “ the man who indulges verbal hiero- 
glyphics, and the empty-pated rattler ; we 
can’t abide either species down at Glenmere. 
We don’t pretend down there ; we are simply 
a set of pretty decent people in the main, who 
are after all the happiness there is in life, 
when it is taken under clear skies, with wind 
and weather favoring.” 

And that was certainly the atmosphere of 
i8 


' Tivixt Love and Laiv. 19 

the place. One fortunate enough to secure 
the colonel’s invitation came under the influ- 
ence of gracious and refining forces the mo- 
ment that the massive iron gates swung wel- 
comingly upon their great hinges, between 
the carved stone posts. 

Within this charming spot, conventional 
boredom was forbidden as a misdemeanor, 
and men and women were expected to show 
up themselves; and the colonel’s marvellous 
tact lay in the fact that he was rarely deceived 
in the character of a guest. 

With few breaks in his triumphant reign, 
the little god Pleasure ruled the spirit of the 
great house from the opening of the guest 
season in May, until the last autumnal days, 
when falling leaves and whistling winds 
covered the bier and chanted the dirge of 
departing summer glories. 

Mehitable, the bachelor colonel’s old-fash- 
ioned sister, presided over the house, lending 
added dignity to every occasion by her gentle 
manners and crown of snowy hair, framing 
a face of benevolent virtue. The w^ar of the 
rebellion had left Mrs. Douglas a childless 


20 ' Tivixt Love and Law. 

widow, and her life’s joy had been found 
in administering to that of others. 

Margaret Blaine was Mehitable’s ward, and 
the daughter of her husband’s only sister, 
who, married to a man unworthy, and early 
overwhelmed with disappointments, had long 
since closed her eyes in the sweet forgetful- 
ness of the dreamless sleep. It will be seen, 
therefore, that Margaret had no claim of 
blood relationship upon the tender love which 
the colonel and Mrs. Douglas bestowed. 

Strangers always wondered to hear the girl 
call the sweet-faced old lady “ Mother Hetty,” 
but so it had been from her babyhood, and so 
it would always be between them. Probably 
the least disappointing emotion of all Mar- 
garet’s life was this one toward Mother 
Hetty, for the girl was instinctively grateful 
for the unselfishness that had surrounded all 
her years with maternal solicitude and fore- 
thought ; and she was too keen a psychologist 
not to know that Mehitable’s devotion was the 
result of a generous resolve to shield her from 
orphan desolation, rather than the expression 
of the mighty mother passion which wraps 


^ Twixt Love and Law. 


21 


and enfolds with irresistible and deathless 
tenderness the being whose life has been 
drawn from her own veins. 

Certainly it was a' wonderful piece of good 
luck that befell the child ; but it was greater 
good fortune to the budding woman to enjoy 
the social protection and advantages which the 
colonel’s home afforded her ; for Margaret’s 
father devoted no thought or care to her, not 
even the money necessary for her support 
and education after her mother’s death ; 
thinking only of himself and his own reck- 
less and expensive pleasures. But Margaret 
was never allowed to know that she was the 
child of such far-reaching kindness and gen- 
erosity, until long years had passed. When 
she was of age to enquire into her pecuniary 
circumstances, it could not be helped, shrewdly 
as the colonel and Mehitable tried to avoid 
the subject. 

The knowledge of her dependence nearly 
overwhelmed the proud girl, and she pas- 
sionately resisted it, declaring that she would 
work or starve rather than burden them 
longer. 


. ■ 

:■ V * 

Avm , 


22 


’ Twixt Love and Law. 


“ I cannot bear it, mother Hetty, 1 can- 
not ! ” was her wild declaration, fraught with 
the full poignancy of the belief that she had 
been forced upon them by circumstances. 
But wherr she saw that her wilful and rebel- 
lious spirit nearly broke the dear old lady’s 
heart, with an intolerable pang for her in- 
gratitude, Margaret settled back again into 
her former place. 

Her- sensitive soul was nevertheless stung 
almost beyond endurance by the shameful 
neglect of her father, for whom she sought 
desperately and stealthily, until she got traces 
of him away off in Australia. She wrote to 
him there, letters intense and reproachful — 
letters which led in the end to his sending 
her a small yearly pittance, a sum quite in- 
sufficient for the bare necessities, a sum 
which, by the way, she rejected later on with 
impassioned scorn, preferring (when she 
reasoned about it) the gifts which the gods 
gave freely, to the grudging tribute of an 
unloving and unnatural parent. 

Such circumctances, together with her 
natural disposition, made of Margaret a some- 


'Twixt Love and Law. 23 

what restless and discontented woman at 
twenty-five ; when, by a strange circumstance 
of fate, her father died, leaving her an almost 
limitless fortune, the result of very recent 
speculative and mining ventures in the Aus- 
tralian Colonies. 

This fortune was with Margaret the signal 
for plunging into all sorts of wild and extrava- 
gant philanthropies ; for taking up, one after 
another, every “ ism ” of the day ; for devot- 
ing herself to impractical schemes for ridding 
the world of orphans, and it might be of chil- 
dren altogether. She rushed on from one 
thing to another, through asylums, through 
hospitals, through prisons, into reforms of 
every conceivable sort, kind, and description. 
From philanthropy and philosophy she leaped 
to the high places of government, and dove 
down into social conditions and conditions of 
society, growing more erratic, more unstable, 
and more bewildered at each turn ; until she 
suddenly brought up before the certainty that 
everything leads to nothing in particular, ex- 
cept it may be to a better understanding of 
“ What fools we mortals be.” And there she 


24 'Twixt Love and Lazv. 

remained — a woman of more or less actual 
experience, but somewhat acquainted with the 
external phases of nearly every condition of 
life ; a woman who had read a little of almost 
everything, drawn hasty conclusions about 
other things, and finally admitted to herself 
that she had been cruelly, cruelly outwitted 
in her efforts to find perfect contentment by 
rushing hither and yon after it. And the day 
came when she tore the mask from the hidden 
face of Truth with sudden and ruthless hands, 
involuntarily accusing her own cringing 
heart. 

“ Love ! love ! love ! that is what you want, 
Margaret Blaine,” she said, with annihila- 
ting plainness. “ Do you hear ? that is 
what you are always longing for — love — 
nothing else. That is what you have been 
tearing up and down the earth in search of 
— love, forever love ! You may call it philos- 
ophy, ha 1 ha ! or science, ha ! ha ! or philan- 
Ihrophy, or charity ; but I say that it is love — 
nothing else — love ! love ! Do you hear, 
Margaret ? Then say it — I want love, I want 
love ! Let the world hear you speak the 


' Twixt Love and Laiv. 25 

truth. You need not be ashamed of it, girl ! 
Don’t pretend that you despise the emotion. 
Goodness help the woman who says that she 
does not want love — what an unnatural thing 
she is ! But that isn’t you, Margaret — not 
you. You are not afraid to call things by 
their right names.” 

Nevertheless, when the passion of the hour 
had worn itself out, she hid her heart again 
with cunning, as women will, and smiled her 
woman’s smiles, clutching all the while with 
her strangling woman’s hands at the throat 
of this new-found consciousness. 

But apart from her mental characteristics, 
to attempt to describe Margaret Blaine would 
be pure impertinence, for she was like the 
after-glow of the sunset or the warmth of 
an Indian summer, or better yet, the sub- 
tle fragrance of rich flowers — indescribable ! 
There was about her an impalpable some- 
thing, an essence, an atmosphere which she 
exhaled, that reminded one of no other 
woman, beautiful or plain. And in spite of 
her mental restlessness she was full of sen- 
suous physical repose ; but her enemies said 


26 ^ Twixt Love and Law. 

that it was the repose of the stealthy cat or 
the crouching tiger — suggestive. 

It must be admitted, however, that she 
carried herself at all times as a well-bred 
woman should ; that she smiled serenely, 
spoke softly — a charming quality in her sex ; 
that she moved simply and with grace — a 
rarer gift yet, and one harder to forgive, es- 
pecially when oneself suffered by comparison ; 
and that her presence and silence were like 
the speech and touch of less magnetic women. 

She never posed — a positive virtue was this, 
for although one may conceal what exists, if 
it be done quietly and well, nothing forgives 
a pretence which is flaunted with the serious- 
ness due to a principle. 

That she had given such sweeping confi- 
dence to Theodore Derwent was due to him- 
self and the scrupulous honesty of his purpose 
toward her when he asked for her love and 
her life — gifts impossible to bestow ; she 
showed him with annihilating abandon the 
barrenness of his hope. But with his depart- 
ure from Glen mere, which followed immedi- 
ately after the interview in the garden. 


' Twixt Love and Law. 27 

Margaret became filled with passionate regret 
for what she could not recall. 

“ But he will never understand,” she urged 
to herself; he could not ! Poor Teddy! he is 
sure to imagine everything else — all kinds of 
impossible things — but never the truth. No, 
never that. He is too honest and conven- 
tional himself ; he will wonder — but he will 
never understand — never ! ” 

She was pacing feverishly up and down the 
length of her room, controlled by a burning 
emotion, her trailing, silken robe rustling 
softly after her with the undulating grace of 
a creeping thing gliding over dried forest 
leaves. 

The cathedral chime in the gilt-bronze 
clock upon the silken-draped mantel slowly 
counted the hour of twelve. Margaret paused 
at the sound ; the dim light of a rose-shaded 
lamp fell upon her hands clasped over her 
head, and her eyes cast down. She was strug- 
gling to resist a force at her heart like the 
restrained efforts of an imprisoned creature 
at the bars of its cage. 

Suddenly she sensed the glowing sheen of 


28 


Tivixt Love and Law. 


her gold-green dress, which had quivered into 
silence about her feet, like an alert, curious, 
living thing. She started in superstitious 
fear. 

“ Ugh ! what a terrible gown it is !” she said, 
tearing open the front ; and, slipping free from 
its folds, she backed steadily away into the 
gloom of the far end of the room. 

“ How uncanny some things are ! ” she 
panted, with staring eyes ; “ it is just as if 
they had worn form, shape, and sense before 
they were what they are.” 

But still she gazed as if fascinated at the 
glowing mass of silk and lace upon the floor. 

“ I hate it,” she whispered, “ the treacher- 
ous thing ! ” and making a sudden dash back, 
she stamped fiercely once, twice, a dozen 
times upon the shimmering, senseless heap. 
Her flesh was thrilling, her eyes were ablaze, 
for the moment was real ; she was battling 
desperately with an imaginary foe to save her 
secret from peering, curious, worldly eyes — 
the midnight seemed full of them. 

The moment grew more tense. 

“ I cannot stand it ! ” she gasped ; and fling- 


'Twixt Love and Law. 29 

ing the shutters wide, she stretched her arms 
to the embrace of the night. 

But in another instant she had recoiled, suf- 
focating, against the window casement. 

“ Gracious ! what a night it is !” she 
breathed, hushed and pale. She had forgot- 
ten her bared throat and neck and arms — 
forgotten everything save the dense fullness of 
the hour replete with speechless living things ; 
for the wraith-like shadows among the trees, 
like spirits returned to the haunts of men, 
seemed whispering her secret among them- 
selves. 

“Oh, Father! spare me,’' she cried, in pite- 
ous appeal. 

Her white bosom tossed and rose and fell ; 
the burnished masses of her hair escaped 
their braids and jewelled confining pins, and 
rioted on the midnight air. 

“ Spare me I spare me — Alex ! Alex ! Alex 1 ” 

Out of the unyielding density of the night a 
voice of ecstacy breathed her name. 

“ Margaret ! ” 

It was the voice of love, distilling sweet 
hope. 


30 


' Twixt Love and Laiv. 


“ Margaret !” 

She had crossed the border land of despair ; 
and her face was radiant with the welcoming 
breath of love’s heaven. 

“Alex!” 

“ Here.” 

The earth had changed ; all the speech- 
less things burst into sudden, exultant song, 
delicious, entrancing; surcharged with the 
melody of the spheres. 

“ I thank the gods.” 

The night no longer filled her with alarm, 
for Love was near. 

“ Dear heart 1” he said. 

The hour was precious, and would soon be 
gone. 

“ It was so dreary,” she breathed him low. 

“And you were afraid,” he accused her, 
gently. 

. “Yes, until you came.” 

“ And did nothing tell you that I was 
near ? ” 

The slanting moonlight reflected the over- 
flowing depths of her lifted eyes. 

“ You are always near.” 


' Twixt Love and Law. 31 

“ And yet you were afraid.” 

“ I cannot help it, when — ” 

“ I know,” he assured her, softly. 

“The world is so cruel,” she shivered. 
“Oh, why can it never understand? ” 

“ Hush, dear one ; it never can.” 

“ No, no ; that is what makes it all so hard 
to bear.” 

“ But to-night there is no world — only you 
and me.” 

“ I wish that the night were eternal.” 

“ Poor heart ! ” he said, and stroked her hair. 

“ When I am so happy — oh ! say it is not 
strange that one should wish to be happy.” 

He was regarding her with solemn pain. 

“ It is not strange,” he said. 

“ Nor wrong,” she urged, insistently. 

“ Margaret ! ” 

“ Say, Alex, that it is not wrong.” r 

“ Margaret, Margaret ! ” 

“ Do, do say that it is not wrong.” 

“ It is human ! ” The words burst from 
him against his will. 

“And we must be human, in spite of it 
all,” she pleaded. 


32 "Twixt Love and Law. 

He drew sharply away. 

“ We are breaking the faith.” 

His voice came harsh and short. 

Great billows of contrition surged over her 
at his tone, and she fell upon her knees in 
the dewy grass, her hands interlaced in pas- 
sionate remorse. 

“ Forgive me, Alex ; forgive.” 

“ How she tears my soul ! ” he whispered 
hoarsely, holding himself apart by a master- 
ful effort. 

“ But I will not do it again, I will not ! I 
promise you, Alex, and I will not — never 
again ! Only, to-night,” she hurried on with 
breathless entreaty, “ I could not bear it. It 
was terrible — you do not know ! ” 

A vague smile, like pain, haunted his lips. 

“ Dear heart, I do know,” he said ; “ I know 
it all— -I lingered here because I knew.” 

“ And did you think that I would call ? ” 
She was straining to catch his answer, the 
pent-up eagerness of her parted lips, like the 
up-springing flame from a druidess’ altar, 
thrilling his blood with the bewildering pain 
of sacrifice. 


' Twixt Love and Law. 


33 





“ I could not tell that.” 

“You hoped — ” she was leaning toward 
him yearningly, the warmth of her breath 
caressing his cheek, the hunger of a lifetime 
in her eyes. 

He swerved, and in the instant a mortal 
longing took him to her feet. But she sprang 
back at the touch which she felt approaching, 
ere it fell upon her. Her face was blanched 
with terror. 

“ Don’t, don’t ! The faith ! the faith ! ” she 
cried. “ You shall not touch me ; I am an 
accursed thing to make you forget the faith.” 

The spell was broken ; his muscles relaxed 
— he breathed again. 

“ I shall learn to keep the faith if you trust 
me,” she said, when the storm had passed. 

“ I fear myself more than you,” he replied. 

She reached him a hand which held no 
temptation in its palm, reassuring and 
warm. 

He took it silently, and they walked that 
way like children for a time. 

“ Do not doubt me again,” she whispered 
at length. 

3 



34 ' Tivixt Love and Laiv. 

“ I will not.” 

“ I do not mean about the faith.” 

“ What then .? ” 

“That day in the garden.” 

“ Yes,” he said, in the light of a recollec- 
tion borne in upon him from the world in 
which they lived, “ I remember.” 

“ You did doubt me then ? ” 

“ It was only for a moment.” 

“ But that was too long.” 

“ I will not again.” 

“ No, do not ; it weakens my courage.” 

“ Dear heart ! ” 

“ I need always to know that you think me 
true; it is that which will save me.” 

“ Don’t, Margaret ! don’t make it depend 
upon me.” 

His hand closed over hers in remonstrance. 

“ But who then ? ” she asked ; and the sim- 
ple trustfulness of the question went home to 
his heart. He was staggered by its innocent 
directness. 

“ We must do what is right” he remarked, 
at a venture. 

“ I feel that,” she replied, “ and you must 


'Twixt Love and Law. 35 

always show me the way ; that is, if I do not 
see it for myself. But I shall try ; you may be 
sure that I shall try.” 

“ I know it, dear heart.” 

“ If it could be like this to-night, if I could 
always be sure of your hand when the way 
seems dark, if you could help me — ever so 
little — just over the rough, hard places, if I 
could hear your voice saying, ‘ dear heart,’ 
this way, I am sure that I should always do 
what was right. If it could only be — just — 
like — thi-s.” 

He gazed down at her clasped hands and 
eager, trustful face, while infinite pity for him- 
self and her welled up from the fountains of 
his soul. 

“ You see,” she went on, “ I was always 
impulsive as a child, and never did what was 
right because it was right, but always to 
please mother Hetty ; and since I have grown 
older and have thought and reasoned about 
everything so much more, I feel the morality 
of things even less than I used to. I am never 
sure of anything now — except you — and what 
I would do to please you.” 


36 "Twixt Love and Laiv. 

She lifted a little pathetic smile to his face ; 
but how she was torturing him with her candid 
self-searching ! 

“ Before I met you I used sometimes to 
feel myself capable of almost anything/’ she 
went on ; “ anything desperate, I mean, just 
to get away from the dead level of the people 
I knew — they tired me so ; and at other times 
I used to believe, because it pleased my 
vanity to believe it, that nature had singled 
me out for some kind of mission — for some 
sort of great inspired work in the world ; and 
after papa left me that fortune I was sure 
that it must be so ; but it was all a mistake — 
there was nothing in it 'at all — there was 
absolutely nothing left for me to do. What I 
might have done indifferently well, somebody 
else was always doing better, because they 
were people in earnest, who loved to do good, 
while I was pretending, and never feeling any- 
thing honest — nothing except that terrible, 
torturing ennui which I suppose all girls who 
grow up without mothers must feel at times.” 

“ Poor child ! ” he said, almost sobbingly. 

“ Yes, I was a poor, unfortunate child,” she 


' Tivixt Love and Law. 37 

continued, plaintively, “ but not nearly so un- 
fortunate then as I was after I came to be a 
woman. I was always unfortunate — always 
until I met you.” 

“ What .? ” 

His forehead was drenched with excitement, 
his face was desperately pale, and his lips 
twitched convulsively, like the lips of a man 
in mortal agony. 

Margaret turned upon him wonderingly. 

“ You are ill,” she cried, swept by sudden 
terror at the sight; “ you are ill.” 

“ No, no,” he said, hoarsely, crushing both 
of her hands within his own until she winced 
with the pain. “ It is nothing — it is gone.” 

“ See ; ” she held up her hands fairly bleed- 
ing where the sharp points of her jewelled 
rings had crushed into the soft flesh. “ See, 
Alex ! you were ill.” 

“ For a moment, perhaps, but it is over 
now,” he replied, forcing a smile. “ How 
cruel I was to those tender little hands !” 

He stroked the bruised places softly, and 
then pointed to the east, where the first faint 
wave of light suggested the approaching day. 


38 ' Tivixt Love and Law. 

He could not let her go back again to what 
she had been saying ; he could not bear any 
more of that sort of thing now. Her depend- 
ence upon himself had nearly overwhelmed 
him before, but the rest of it was ghastly — 
nothing less. 

She clung to his hands. 

“ I have been so contented,” she said ; “ and 
when I need you so very, very much, I shall 
call you again ; for it makes me natural and 
gentle and womanly — so much better than I 
was before.” 

He was incapable of remonstrance with her 
at the moment. 

“ But I shall keep the faith,” she said, re- 
assuringly ; “ you may trust me to do that.” 

“ God help you,” he replied. 

“ And yon must help me.” 

“ Then God help me,” he said, more fer- 
vently than ever prayer was breathed to 
heaven. “ And now, dear heart, good-bye.” 

She looked at him wistfully where he stood 
with folded arms and deep-set eyes, watching 
her as she backed away. At the low French 
window by which she had left her room she 


' Twixt Love and Law, 39 

paused again, and through the yellow gloom of 
the first awakened morning their hearts held 
each other for a second in an embrace of 
deathless love — then he strode away into the 
park. 

Within her own room Margaret flung back 
the cloak of soft enfolding white stuff which 
she had snatched up when she went out into 
the night. 

How changed the great room seemed ! The 
mellow light from the rose-shaded lamp fell 
upon her white bed with its damask silk and 
lace hangings, making of it a pure, roseate 
shrine inviting as the couch of an angel. 
The cathedral clock ticked cheerfully ; her 
favorite big chair with its many cushions was 
drawn up, never more invitingly before the 
little book-bestrewn table. Everything seemed 
filled with an interior sense of restfulness and 
repose, like the languorous calm in her own 
soul. 

Margaret breathed it all in with parted, 
smiling lips dreamily, and threw herself half- 
dressed upon a couch to revel in the mystical 
nearness of love. That last, powerful glance 
had diffused her soul with perfect peace. 


CHAPTER III. 

Alex. Yandell, married to one woman, 
was in love with another; and, greater mis- 
fortune yet, that other, Margaret Blaine, was 
in love with him. 

Like hundreds of other men, Yandell had 
married, during the period of adolescence, the 
first girl who attracted his boyish fancy ; and 
the years had brought him bitter remorse for* 
his haste. The fact could not be denied: 
Mrs. Yandell gave him nothing in marriage 
except sons and daughters with regularity — 
and one might almost add, irresponsibility. 

It was bad enough for them both that she 
could not enter into and comprehend his 
constantly expanding genius ; but it was 
worse that he could not rouse her to interest 
in the wider moral sympathies which were 
such an essential part of his immortal growth. 

Had, however, the woman remained, as the 
40 


*Twixt Love and Law. 41 

years went on, what she once was, a merely 
pretty doll, with interesting, babyish ways, 
Yandell could not reasonably have found 
fault with fate, much as he might curse his 
own pitiable folly; but, alas for him ! the doll 
face became heavy and dull, while the baby 
ways degenerated into affectation and com- 
monplace. 

Again, had she proven herself an exception- 
ally good mother, there would have been a 
redeeming feature to this relation, which was 
unfortunate to the last degree in other re- 
spects; but Mrs. Yandell was neither better 
nor worse than hundreds of other mothers 
who provide their children, each one with a 
nurse wearing a white cap and embroidered 
apron ; her own solace taking the form of a 
a very silky poodle, which she personally 
washed and bedecked with fresh ribbons 
semi-weekly. 

Not that she did not love her children 
according to the strictly conventional grasp 
which her mind took upon maternal questions. 
She never tired of telling a new acquaint- 
ance of how many times she went into hys- 


42 ’ Twixt Love mid Law. 

terics the day that her dear, darling Bertie 
died — and no one, it must be admitted, could 
have mourned more correctly. Indeed, Mrs. 
Yandell adored the customs of civilized life 
to the extent of being scrupulous about the 
amount of her crape and the days and hours 
which she absented herself from the social 
whirl. To have worn her veil by mistake an 
inch shorter or longer than the prevailing 
mode for children’s mourning, or to have had 
a pleat too many in her drapery, would have 
upset her nervous system for a week, and 
sent her to bed with her head enveloped in 
a handkerchief reeking with cologne. 

When Yandell first discovered, shortly after 
marriage, that there existed no real compati- 
bility between Mrs. Yandell and himself, he 
undertook the self-imposed task of bringing 
her up to a higher mental plane, so that there 
might at least be negative companionship in 
their daily relations as husband and wife ; but 
it was a blank impossibility ! To educate the 
woman was out of the question ; she would 
not read books, and even her school-girl 


’ Twixt Love and Law. 43 

accomplishments were but indifferently kept 
up. 

She danced well, however, and was on 
that account popular in the ball-room ; and 
she had a fund of platitudes and small talk 
which served her in the parlor. 

For the rest, she made calls on just the day 
that they were due, she rode in the Park at 
the fashionable hour, and was punctilious to 
the last degree in her observance of Lent. 
But never once, by mistake or intention, did 
she, in the twenty-four hours of a day and 
night, lapse from the wretched monotony of 
the dreary commonplaces with which she was 
forever boring the unhappy man. For Yandell 
did tire of it all during the first years of 
married life ; and afterward, from boredom 
it became misery, pure and simple ; from 
misery, desperation ; from desperation, dull, 
lethargic despair ; at which stage, to escape 
the maelstrom of recklessness which threat- 
ened him, the poor wretch gathered himself 
together, determined to face the worst, con- 
quer its desolation, and thereafter live within 
himself and for his children. 


44 ' Twixt Love and Law. 

The future was not an alluring one, for 
Yandell was a man of strong human sym- 
pathy, always longing for warm human com- 
panionship and such mental stimulus as a 
congenial woman would have alforded him. 
He was a man, however, whose ideals were 
pure, and the temptation to seek relaxation 
and diversity in affairs with women had never 
assailed him with a force which required active 
resistance. 

It was not until confronted with the abso- 
lute certainty that the mother nature dom- 
inated all his children except Roy, the 
oldest, a lad of fourteen, that he felt the 
utter hopelessness of his domestic relations, 
and determined that whatever nominal mar- 
riage ties might exist between himself and 
the woman who bore his name, the miserable 
pretence at a real union should cease at once 
and for all time. 

This position on his part was met by un- 
qualified resistance from Mrs. Yandell, but it 
did not shake his determination in the least ; 
and it must be confessed that there was relief 


' Twixt Love and Law. 45 

to the man’s, finer sensibilities in thus cutting 
loose from galling bonds. 

It was afterward that he met Margaret 
Blaine. 

Colonel Conant had invited him for the 
season (Mrs. Yandell went to Newport) to 
sketch and paint, for Yandell was an artist 
of some reputation, and the scenery about 
Glenmere was unsurpassed in the quiet beauty 
which inspires an artist’s brush. At every turn 
there were bits of landscape fresh and unsus- 
pected, until they broke with wildering jsur- 
prise upon the enchanted gaze. 

I have said that Yandell and Margaret met 
— eyes, hands, hearts, souls. The tale is 
told. 

I have before this heard the conventional 
moralist enlarge upon the wickedness of 
allowing one’s self to fall in love under such 
circumstances, and I have seen the righteous 
breast inflate and expand with consequential 
morality over the total depravity of the guilty 
one ; but I have yet to meet the person, 
clergyman or layman, who has intelfigently 


46 ’ Twixt Love and Law. 

pointed the way to escape this spontaneous 
attraction of two congenial natures. 

As well might one tell the flowers not to 
lift themselves at the kiss of the sun ; or the 
rivers not to rush to the embrace of the ocean ; 
or the parched and thirsty earth to refuse the 
vital influence of refreshing dews — or even a 
spiritually hungry soul to resist the voice of 
God. 

But writing of these two human reeds 
shaken. by the wind of circumstances, Yandell 
and Margaret, it must be said that it soon 
became perfectly useless to attempt the con- 
cealment from each other of the conscious- 
ness which each had admitted to themselv^es 
from the first hour of their acquaintance, al- 
though silence was maintained between them 
for awhile. 

But one day, Yandell, touched to the 
quick by the dumb entreaty in Margaret’s 
eyes, burst forth in a torrent of self-reproach : 

“ I wish, Margaret, that you might have 
been spared this experience. It was bad 
enough for me before, but the knowledge that 
you, too, must suffer adds a thousandfold to 


' ' Twixt Love and Laiv. 47 

the poignancy of the cursed mistake for 
which I alone am to blame. I wish that I 
might have died before I was forced to upset 
your peace of mind.” 

“ I am happier now than I was before,” 
she said, looking at him with deep pathos. 
“ I know now what love is ; before, I was 
always longing to know, and feeling that I had 
missed the best part of life.” . 

“ We have both missed the best part of life 
in not knowing each other when thete was 
nothing between us,” he said, bitterly. Now 
it is too late ; nothing is left us but regret and 
suffering.” 

I do not feel that nothing is left us,” said 
Margaret, hurriedly. “ I was thinking about 
it yesterday, and it seems to me that we have 
a great deal to be thankful for : we can still 
be friends.” 

“ That is where the trouble lies ; we cannot 
be friends,” he said, with emphasis. “ People 
in our situation always delude themselves with 
such sophistry as that ; but it is useless. All 
said, love remains, and will remain, to mock 
the impotency of the conceit.” 


48 'Twixt Love and Laiv, 

“ Nevertheless, I cannot help being thank- 
ful for love,” she breathed, impressively. 

He was white with the strong feeling which 
swayed him. 

“ Because you do not realize what the 
future has in store for us ; you do not even 
realize the danger that there is to both of us 
in just such indulgence as this. You cannot 
know,” desperately, “that I, standing here 
before my conscience, loving you better than 
my own life, am possessed of a fiend that 
urges me to do you a cruel wrong ! which at 
this moment says, ‘Take her to your heart, 
love her, defy circumstances — she is 
yours ! ’ ” 

With a little suffocating, involuntary cry, 
Margaret reached him her hand, but he did 
not move ; with arms folded, grim and unyield- 
ing as a sphinx, he spoke again : 

“ No, do not fear ; I am not going to yield 
to the temptation ; I am not going to wrong 
you : but if we were to play at the wretched 
farce of friendship day after day ; if we were 
to be always meeting and spending forgetful 
hours together, the time might come — would 


'Twixt Love and Lazv. 49 

come, in fact,, for there is no deceiving our- 
selves about that — I swear it, Margaret, I 
would not outlive that day ! ” 

She shuddered hysterically. 

“ Don’t ! don’t ! it is terrible,” she pro- 
tested. 

“ It would be devilish, for us,” he replied, 
forcefully ; “ nothing less. But there is not a 
man living who has not more or less of the 
instinct of crime within him waiting to be 
roused. We must avoid the danger ; we must 
part.” 

She looked at him with dumb appeal. 

“ If there were no children,” he went on, 
“ if it were only breaking away from — her, I 
should do it ; I should free myself ; I should 
feel that I had the right. But the children 
change all that ; they are innocent — they 
are more, they are the hapless victims of their 
father’s criminal indifference to moral law ! 
I see it, Margaret, as you cannot ; and with 
them before me, it is no longer a matter of 
choice — it is duty.” 

“ I suppose that it must be so,” she ac- 
quiesced, in a choking voice. 


50 'Twixt Love and Laiv. 

“ It is so ; there is no question about it. I 
am responsible to the world for them. I have 
no longer an}'’ right to such happiness as love 
and life with you would mean ! I have forfeited 
that. The time to have broken away was 
before they came — years ago; I could not 
leave them now.” 

“ No, no ! you certainly could not,” she 
replied, vehemently, forgetting the hopeless- 
ness of the hour in the swift rush of memory 
which recalled her own barren, desolate youth. 
“ It would be a cruel wrong.” 

Even Yandell was surprised by her passion- 
ate self-forgetfulness. 

“ But this brings us back to ourselves,” he 
said, abruptly, “ back to the logic of the situ- 
ation, which is, that we must part.” 

She clasped her hands imploringly. 

“ There must be some other way.” 

“ What?” 

She was silent. 

“ There is no other way, Margaret — that is, 
no other way for you and me. Such love as I 
feel for you is not the kind for clandestine 
meetings, for concealment, for — ” 


^ Tzvixt Love and Lazv, 51 

“ Don’t ” — she raised her arm with a gesture 
of intense pathos — “ don’t misunderstand me ; 
that would not suit me, for I love you.” 

There was something majestic in the very 
simplicity of the way in which she said, “ for 1 
love you.” 

“ That is it ; what we feel for each other is 
love, and we must not degrade it. I know 
that it does not seem possible now that we 
could ever come to that ; but we are human, 
and there is but one way.” 

“ And that is the man’s way,” she said, with 
such a piteous little smile that his heart was 
wrung with pain. 

“ But I do not think that you understand 
exactly how a woman feels at such a time,” 
rather vaguely. 

“ I suppose not,” he admitted. “ But I do 
know, Magaret, that it will be better for us not 
to meet.” 

“ You would rather that we should not ? ” 
She was bending toward him feverishly. 

“No, I am man enough to rather that we 
should be always meeting — that we should 
remain together, in fact,” he replied, grimly. 


52 ' Twixt Love mid Law. 

She started back, shivering. 

“ But that is not the question — that is im- 
possible.” 

“ It would come to that if we were to begin 
in the way which — It is no use, Margaret ! 
we cannot play with fire and escape its flame. 
I may control myself long enough to talk with 
you as I am doing now ; but I will not even 
pretend that I could meet you day after day, 
in intimate friendship, and not give way to my 
strong desire to touch you — to crush you to 
my heart.” 

A tingling flash of passion, like the swift 
play of lightning across a leaden sky, swept 
the pallor of her cheek and brow. The 
warmth was like a kiss from his personality. 

“You think it would come to that,” she 
breathed, with drooping lids. 

“ I know it would. I suppose that we 
might go on meeting in the presence of others 
— as we have done — and nothing come of it 
except the nervous strain,” he replied, huskily ; 
“ but it seems rather like forcing matters to 
try it ! Indeed, I am not sure but I think 


^ Twixt Love and Law, 53 

that such a meeting as this between us is 
rather — absurd.” 

“ I do not think that I am given to such 
severe analysis of causes and effects as you 
are,” said Margaret. “ Indeed, I do not think 
that I see everything as you see it. I am sure 
— yes, quite sure, that I should like to try — ” 

She paused, and looked up at him almost 
helplessly. 

Great drops stood upon his forehead, his 
mouth was set, and his gaze seemed to pen- 
etrate to the hidden places of her soul — 

“ To try—” 

He did not move, nor once take his riveting 
eyes from her face. 

— “ To try being friends.” 

“ Well,” he said, with the deep-drawn breaths 
of a man in the throes of a desperate conflict, 
“if we are to try being friends, 1 think that 
you had better tell me just how you would like 
everything to be.” 

“ I think that I should like it to be just as if 
we had never said anything to each other — 
just as if we were other people.” 

“ That would be a good way,” he admitted. 


54 ' Twixt Love and Law. 

with the most desperate humor — “ just as if 
we were other people.” 

Margaret looked up with a serious expres- 
sion, rather puzzled at his tone. 

“ But will it not be a trifle difficult for us, 
after having been dominated by a certain 
individuality native to both of us, to begin 
personating ? Do you not think that we are 
rather — old, say, for that ? ” he asked, almost 
recklessly. 

Margaret was regarding him with the same 
serious, anxious expression as before. 

“ I do not think that you understand me,” 
she said. “ I do not mean that we shall act, 
but only forget that this has been — no, I do 
not even mean forget ; of course we could not 
do that ; but we might go on just as if we 
had forgotten — just as if there were nothing 
to remember or forget : that is it,” she said 
sagaciously. 

He looked at her almost stupidly. There 
was something bewildering to him in her way 
of disposing of themselves as if they were two 
stuffed dolls. 

He grinned rather sardonically when he 


' Tzvixt Love and Lazv. 55 

had sensed it in all its humor, but the expres- 
sion was lost upon her. 

“ We shall go on meeting just as we have 
met — with all the others there ; and all the 
time we shall know that we are friends.” 

“You do not expect that we shall ever be 
alone — by accident ? ” 

“ No, we must not do that— we must avoid 
all that. I can see the unwisdom of that. 
But all the time we shall be thinking that we 
are keeping the faith between ourselves.” 

Her innocent paradox struck him as un- 
utterably pathetic. 

“Yes, we shall be intending to keep the 
faith,” he said, somewhat enigmatically. 

“We must keep the faith— we must do 
that ! And you will remain all summer ? ” 

She had raised her eyes to his wistfully. 

“ I shall remain for the present at least. ” 
That was all the understanding there ever 
was between them; yet they had met, once 

twice — thrice, since then, each time drawn 

together by overflowing hearts. Each time 
she had called him, and each time he had 
chanced to be within the sound of her call. 


56 'Twixt Love and Lazo. 

For the rest, they had met daily, almost 
hourly, in the gay throng at Castle Mere. But 
so far they had been what the world would 
call discreet, and no one suspected them of 
any stronger feeling for each other than that 
of good fellowship. 

And sometimes Margaret was- comparatively 
happy in the thought that Yandell was near 
her ; but oftener she was sad, for every day the 
hopelessness of love without marriage grew 
upon her, and there were times when she felt, 
as she had told Derwent, “ starved — starved 
— starved, body and soul.” And the worst of 
it was that there would be no end to it, that 
there was nothing to hope for, that years 
would not change anything, except it might 
be for the worse. 

Sometimes the wild, despairing thought 
would come to her that perhaps death would 
in time sweep away the barrier that separated 
them ; but the reaction from such musings 
always left her contrite and humbled, I might 
even add, shocked, and loathing herself. 

“ I am a fit subject for a lunatic asylum 
and the straight jacket ! ” she shuddered, one 


' Twixt Love and Law. 57 

day, after going over these possibilities. “ It is 
horrible, horrible ! to be always living in the 
shadow of a charnel-house, waiting to snatch 
my happiness from the dead ; it is nearly as 
bad — as — murder ! ” 

And after that she resolutely put the thought 
away from her. 



CHAPTER IV. 

It rained at Glenmere; toward noon it 
poured, by afternoon the whole country was 
aflood, and still the leaden clouds hanging 
low over the drenched earth gave no sign of 
lifting ; and as night came on, the wind rose 
to a gale, and sent ghoulish voices whirring 
through the gloom of the thickly wooded 
uplands lying to the east of Castle Mere. 

Flowering shrubs were beaten down by the 
trampling feet of these storm legions, and 
golden grain, which yesterday had lifted jaunty, 
tasselled heads to the kissing breeze, was 
lashed into sodden heaps ; while here and 
there centenarian elms stood like dauntless 
sentinels against the dun fury of the night. 

Even the staunch, strong walls of the castle 
shivered in the fierce clutches of the gale, 
which moaned and whistled about its rugged 
sides, and whirled a torrent of dirgeful sounds 

58 


' Twixt Love and Law. 59 

into the yawning chimney-places, where the 
leaping blaze of hickory logs smothered the 
doleful mutterings in a warm embrace. 

And the spirit of the storm seemed to have 
taken possession of the guests assembled that 
evening in the great north-west parlor at Castle 
Mere, for conversation became rather grue- 
some after a few futile attempts to lug in such 
subjects of general interest as music and art. 

“ Well, well,” said the colonel, drawing 
near to the fire, and rubbing his hands together 
before the blaze, as if to lure an imperceptible 
chill out of them, “ this isn’t a very cheerful 
family to-night.” 

“ Gad, Colonel,” returned his friend Melvin, 
“ this isn’t the weather to make one cheerful 
in midsummer.” 

“Not very,’'’ assented the colonel; “in fact 
I don’t remember that there has been such a 
storm in these parts for years — upon my word, 
it is just twenty years ago this night since we 
had anything like it. A singular coincidence, 
that,” musingly. 

The colonel walked to the window and 
pushed aside the heavy Persian drapery which 


6o ^ Twixt Love and Law. 

shrouded it; for it was a custom at Castle 
Mere to hang these oriental stuffs at the win- 
dows of all the living-rooms, to deaden sound 
whenever it stormed. 

“ We were building the castle at that time,” 
he said, resuming the subject after a thought- 
ful pause, “ and the east wing over there was 
just finished when the tempest came. What a 
storm it was ! For two days and nights the 
devouring fury of the elements made a second 
deluge seem imminent ; the lightning was 
something appalling, and the flash which 
pulverized that corner into ruins was followed 
by a crash which might have passed for the 
crack of doom.” 

One by one the guests had been taking up 
positions at the different windows command- 
ing a view 6f the ruined wing, whose jagged 
and irrregularly shaped walls, now moss-grown 
and covered with clinging, friendly vines, 
could be seen in the pauses of the storm 
against the inky night. 

“ And you never repaired the damage done } 
How strange ! ” said Evelyn Pell, an English 
visitor whose notions of the American predi- 


'Twixt Love and Law, 6i 

lection for whatever is perfectly new and 
finished could not be reconciled with such 
neglect on the part of a very American man. 

The colonel smiled at her naive surprise. 

“ Would you have liked it better ? ” he 
asked. 

“No; a thousand times, no,” she replied, 
protestingly. “ I have loved that wing ever 
since I came, because it is like so much at 
home.” 

“ English, you know,” said Burt Sloane, 
mischievously ; and then in a voice intended 
for her ears alone, “Do you always love 
what is English best ? ” 

A sweeping color, rich as the ripe heart of a 
pomegranate, suffused her now. It was an 
open secret that they were in love, and wait- 
ing for papa Pell’s approval and blessing. 

“That wing was never repaired,” the 
colonel said, “for the reason that nature’s 
powerful architect had executed a piece of 
work which an Angelo might have tried in 
vain to originate. There is to me a rugged 
beauty about that rough-hewn stone, a cer- 


62 ' Tzvixt Love and Law. 

tain fantastic gracefulness which could not 
be surpassed by the art of man.” 

“It is not remarkable that you should have 
come to feel that way with years, but I am 
surprised, Colonel, that you did not get to 
rebuilding before the sentiment of the ruin 
had fastened itself upon you,” said Melvin. 

“ I have no doubt that I should have made 
that wretched mistake but for the timely 
interference of a visitor of my mother’s then 
at Glenmere. I’ll tell you about it, for the 
story is a rather interesting one. As some of 
you may know, before this castle was built 
there stood upon that sweep of rising ground 
beyond the park an old mansion house, the 
same in which I was born ; in fact, this prop- 
erty has been a Conant possession for over 
a hundred years. My mother, who was a 
remarkable woman in many ways, was given 
to picking up the most singular people in her 
travels. It used to be a favorite joke of my 
boyhood, that she had discovered enough odd 
human specimens to start a museum with, and 
that she was always longing for an Act of 
Congress, authorizing the scientific extinction 


' Twixt Love and Law, 63 

of the life-spark in these peculiar species, and 
their classification according to individual 
differences.” 

“ Horrible ! What a little fiend you must 
have been, Colonel !” declared Mrs. War- 
burton, quite seriously. 

“ I expect that I was a pretty bad boy ; in 
fact, there is an unwritten tradition in the 
family history to that effect, as Mrs. Douglas 
will bear me witness,” laughed the colonel, 
nodding toward his sister. “ But fortunately 
my dear old mother was under the protection 
of a gracious fate, and these unusual creatures 
were always coming and going in spite of 
me.” 

“ And you are sure. Colonel, that you have 
not inherited the maternal bent ; it would be 
ghastly to think that you were subjecting each 
one of us in turn to psychic analysis, and 
thinking of our classifications,” groaned Judge 
Brent, the jolliest man at Castle Mere. 

“ I’ll stand a trial on that point, Judge ; name 
the bond. The ladies will, I am sure, qualify 
in any amount from curiosity until my story is 
done.” 


64 ' Twixt Love and Lazv. 

“ Yes, do go on with the story ; we don’t 
care anything about the law,” chorussed a 
trio of women’s voices. 

“Additional reason why I shall continue 
to urge the e-man-cipation of your sex,” 
wickedly responded the judge. 

“ Five dollars for the Indignant Women’s 
Fund,” promptly demanded Margaret, with 
twinkling eyes, “ and twice that amount for a 
second offence. No puns are permitted 
within the enclosure of Glenmere.” 

When the judge had counterfeited paying 
his fine, amid shouts of laughter at his droll- 
ness, the colonel resumed his story. 

“ Among all the strange guests who came 
to Glenmere during my mother’s lifetime, 
probably not one could be counted more un- 
fathomably strange than the Baroness von 
Gripenberg,” he said. “ She was a w'onder- 
ful woman, and possessed of a power which, 
even at this distance of years, I cannot ex- 
plain and will not affect to despise. It was 
not in the nature of a superstition ; it was a 
dominating, controlling force, which one could 
no more escape than comprehend. At first 


'Twixt Love and Lazv. 65 

I thought her an ingenious affectation, but I 
came to recognize her as a revelation ; a point 
upon which my mind has never changed. She 
was a being set apart by mental developments 
no less interesting than remarkable ; and she 
claimed in all seriousness to have lived a 
conscious existence for over two thousand 
years.” 

“ She must have been a downright crazy 
crank,” tersely remarked Mrs. Warburton. 

“ But we had no cranks in those days,” the 
colonel smiled; “and,” reflectively, “admit- 
ting the excellence of the term for general 
application to eccentric people, it would in no 
way apply to the Baroness von Gripenberg. 
Indeed, so far was she removed from any 
form of mental unbalance, I am compelled to 
admit that I have never met with a logically 
clearer mind in man or woman. She was the 
spirit of justice incarnated in human form, 
and wisdom fell from her lips with a spiritual 
refreshing that was as grateful to the heart as 
the sight of a crystal stream to the famishing 
traveller on an arid desert.” 

“To say the least, she must have been . 

5 


66 'Tivixt Love and Law. 

interesting as a study,” Melvin remarked. 
“ But how did you reconcile such wisdom 
with such a strange hallucination concerning 
the length of her life ? ” 

“ I could not reconcile it, and for that 
reason finally accepted the fact on her own 
recognizance.” 

“Great Jove, Colonel! you don’t mean to 
say that you believed in that fiction of the 
imagination.” 

“ By what authority should I deny it ? ” 

“ Why, reason and sense, man ! ” 

“Alas! my dear Melvin, the virtues which 
you have named are limited with each one of 
us to the measure of his own finite endow- 
ments. My powers may be both greater and 
less than others of my neighbors enjoy.” 

“ I grant it, but nothing is proven.” 

“ Nor disproven, which is equally important. 
In a word, the limitations of reason and 
sense are the limitations of the individual 
horizon.” 

“ But there are natural limitations to all 
things.” 

“ How so, when the ablest philosophers of 


' Twixt Love and Law. 6/ 

the world have been unable to discover them ? 
There can be no fixed and universal philos- 
ophy of life until the age of revealment is 
past ; and you will not pretend to say that the 
centuries which have given us a Newton, a 
Franklin, and later an Edison, to demonstrate 
the illimitability of natural forces, are those in 
which to limit the Infinite Sense.” 

“ But you, on the other hand. Colonel, will 
certainly not deny that the beginning and end 
of conscious existence are the birth and death 
of material forms; nor will you, I am sure, 
deny that there are certain fixed laws govern- 
ing these natural conditions.” 

“ Why should I affirm it, when my affirma- 
tion must be opposed to the negation of one 
whose spiritual education embraced the clas- 
sics at a time when my own was scarcely 
begun. But in point of truth I neither deny 
nor affirm it. The Baroness von Gripenberg 
said, ‘ I know that a human soul may pass 
from one physical incarnation to another, be- 
cause I have experienced it.’ You must per- 
ceive, my dear Melvin, that it would have 
been both shocking and unwarranted for me 


68 'Twixt Love and Law, 

to have said — ‘ Impossible, madam ; you cer- 
tainly must be unbalanced in mind, because 
/ do not conceive that such a thing can be 
possible.’ ” 

“ Assuredly, Colonel, if you were speaking 
as a gallant.” 

“ To have spoken at all in the face of such 
revelation as the lady made concerning truths 
and events anterior to my own knowledge 
would have been to speak as an egotist. I 
could not say, ‘ Madam, I know,’ when I had 
not even assumed the mental or spiritual atti- 
tude of inquiry. I might have said, it is true, 
that modern theology teaches, etc., etc.; but 
I should also have been compelled to add that 
modern theologists differ among themselves 
concerning spiritual questions.” 

“ But all the Churches agree in believing 
that people begin to exist at birth ! ” declared 
Mrs. Warburton, stiffly. 

She was shocked at such heresy, for she 
was nothing if not a staunch supporter of the 
dignity of the creeds. 

“ And in so far, I assure you that the 
baroness agreed with the Churches,” the 


' Twixt Love and Law. 6g 

colonel replied, “ the only difference of belief 
being a difference of time. She remembered 
to have begun her conscious existence several 
centuries before, and to have suffered the bod- 
ily death and spiritual renewal many times, 
each physical manifestation taking a higher 
form, as befitted the eternal soul. When I 
knew this renascent being, she felt that the 
end of her material incarnations was near, and 
she was greatly rejoiced.” 

“ She must have been, after enduring her- 
self for two thousand years/’ the lady re- 
marked, with a sniff of superior disdain ; “ for 
my part, I* expect to be done with myself at 
the Christian limit of three score and ten.” 

The colonel was visibly amused. 

“ I wish I could have met her,” said Evelyn 
Pell. “ She must have been delightful.” 

“ She was not only a delight, she was an 
education to one who was permitted to know 
her well. So varied had been her human 
experiences that the historical events of 
centuries were the happenings of yesterdays, 
which she related with the vivid power of a 
keen eye-witness tracing the lesson of the ages 


/O 'Twixt Love and Law, 

with force which was conviction. But I am 
digressing from the point of my story, which 
was her connection with the ruined east wing. 
That night of the storm, immediately after 
the lightning had done its demolishing work, 
several of us gathered at the spot to talk over 
the destruction wrought. Suddenly we felt 
the essence of a presence, and turning, saw the 
baroness coming towards us swiftly, with an 
uplifted arm. She was still in the robe which 
she had worn in the drawing-room, a filmy, 
white stuff — ’’ 

“ I feel the chills running down my spine,” 
superstitiously whispered Miss Pell to 
Margaret. 

— “And without cloak or head-covering. In 
the massed gloom of the night she became a 
resplendent personality, a Priestess of the 
Storm — the Interpreter of the thunderbolts of 
Jove.” 

“ ‘ Behold the work of almighty wisdom,’ she 
said, ‘ and from this hour let your ruin be con- 
secrated as a temple sacred to the study of 
Eternal Truth. As one stone has fallen upon 
another, let them lie, each a symbol of the 


' Twixt Love and Law. 71 

undeveloped Kingdom of God in every human 
soul.’ Swift as a spirit she swept within the 
tottering archway of the half-fallen ruin, and 
with a diamond pencil cut a mysterious 
character into a pillar of lapis lazuli which still 
stood in triumphant loneliness above the 
general devastation. It may have been a 
sentiment, it may have been a conviction, or 
it may have been a superstition only, but 
I could never bring myself to rebuild that 
wing.” 

“ I should think not,” said Miss Pell. “ Why 
it would have been nothing less than sacrile- 
gious.” She was glowing with responsive 
exaltation. “ But where is she now, and what 
was the character ? ” 

“ I have since learned from a wise Oriental 
that the character is one of great occult signifi- 
cance ; and the last time I saw the baroness 
was in India. I visited that country seven years 
ago, and met her in one of the mountains of 
• that mystical land, surrounded by a coterie of 
occult students. To-morrow we will look 
at the consecrated altar, but to-night I am 


72 ' Twixt Love and Latv. 

afraid that I have conjured up legendary 
ghosts enough to send all of you shivering to 
bed.” 

The colonel rose. 

“ Come, Mrs. Warburton, sing for us, to 
break the spell.” 

He offered his arm with courtly politeness 
to that lady, who had a voice of superb power, 
and led her to the harp, with which she always 
accompanied herself. 

The song, a quaint Scotch ballad, was just 
finished, when a telegram was brought to 
Yandell by a messenger from the village five 
miles away. 

“No bad news, I hope,” said his host, 
solicitously, knowing that the message must 
be an urgent one for a man to undertake its 
delivery through such a dangerous storm. 

Yandell had risen with a stricken face. 

“ My oldest boy is dying,” he said, with the 
tense self-control characteristic of strong men 
in seasons of sudden grief. “ I shall have to 
trouble you for some kind of a rig to get me 
to the nearest station in time for the night 
train.” 


'Tzvixt Love and Law. 73 

Everybody was immediately sympathetic, 
after the fashion that people always are at 
such times. Only Margaret was dumb, trans- 
fixed as if by a javelin flung from the hand of 
a couchant Nemesis. 

“Roy Yandell dying!” She could not 
believe it. It was too bitterly cruel that the 
wretched father should lose his only child — 
his only child ; yes, the rest of them were hers 
— not his; not an instinct bound one of the 
others to him — they were hers, by heredity, 
disposition, character, form, features — every- 
thing ! But this boy was his — his very own. 
Swift, distinct, hopeless — rousing passions of 
rebellion and anguish for his bereavement — 
came the recollection of the father’s delight 
and pride in this one boy. She remembered 
all that he had said of the boy’s noble, manly 
heart ; of his mental qualities ; his promise 1 
And all of this glad youth was to end in 
death. It was cruel ; it was fiendish I 

Stung into action by his misery, she started 
toward him imperceptibly. She would com- 
fort him, she would; she loved him, and love 
gave her the right. She would go to him in 


74 ' Twixt Love and Law. 

his trouble — in spite of the terrors of hell — 
she would ! 

But at the first step a myriad silent dragons 
of conventional propriety barred the way, and 
she fell back speechless and impotent. 

His boy was dying — yet she could not get 
to him. There he was, with only the length 
of a room between them — yet he seemed an 
eternity removed. His boy was dying — he 
had never needed her as he needed her now, 
and yet she stood a helpless prisoner within 
her own chaotic grief. 

But what was that damning thought which 
forced its way of a sudden into her brain, 
causing it to seethe with the fury of a flame 
of running fire along a sun-dried plain ? What 
demon whispered the scorching words which 
were burning their way into her guilty soul ? 

“ If the boy should die — his boy — this one 
— the only link in that desolate marriage 
would be broken. His death would set the 
father free from her — morally free. The 
other children are hers, but this one is his — 
and if this boy should die, his boy — his only 
boy—” 


' Twixt Love and Law. 


75 


“ Margaret,” the colonel said, in an under- 
tone, touching her lightly upon the arm, 
“ surely you must have some word of sym- 
pathy for Mr. Yandell; his favorite son is 
dying. Did you understand } ” 

Margaret lifted a pair of unforgettable eyes 
straight to his own. 

“I understood,” she said. “What trite 
words of sympathy would you suggest that I 
should offer him, uncle ? ” 

The colonel was chilled and surprised. 

“ What would you advise that I should say 
to comfort him .? ” 

Light broke in upon him. 

“ You are right,” he assented, “ people do 
say too much at such times. I never thought 
of it before.” 

But Yandell had just left the room to get 
ready for his miserable journey, and seeing 
this, the colonel went off to consult with the 
grooms about his best way for getting to the 
station, whether on horseback or by vehicle, 
with the roads in their present washed-out 
condition. 

Mrs. Douglas set about having a cup of cof- 


76 ' Twixt Love and Law. 

fee and a lunch prepared, and Margaret was 
able to slip away unnoticed to her own apart- 
ments. 

Here she proceeded with deliberation and 
care to remove her delicate evening attire 
without the aid of a maid. One by one she 
took ;he gems from her arms, neck, and hair, 
laying each with scrupulous exactness into its 
own place in the carved ivory jewel tray ; 
nothing about her bespeaking emotion mean- 
while, save the almost supernatural pallor of 
her face. Then she donned by contrast a 
pair of stout hunting boots and a dark, ser- 
viceable storm gown and cloak, with a hood to 
it which shrouded her to the teeth, as the low- 
hung clouds enshrouded the night into which 
she passed through a window-door leading to 
the verandah. 

Never before had she moved with such 
concentrated, almost gruesome calmness 
under a dominating emotion. But where was 
she going, and what was she going to do? 
Descending the terraced lawn, she went 
straight across the broad front sweep of 
drenched sward, which clung about her feet 


'Tzvixt Love and Law. 77 

with a slushing sound like the hiss of a 
trampled serpent ; through the fierce breath- 
ing of the wind which resisted every step ; 
onward, into the very jaws of the remorseless 
easterly storm as it tore round the ruined 
wing ; against the beating rain, with certain 
tread over the slippery carpet of soggy, sod- 
den vines, straight to the consecrated altar 
of Truth, where she knelt with uncovered 
head in prayer. 

Margaret Blaine had prayed for years, from 
force of habit, as most of us do, to an unknow- 
able, formless dummy in space ; but to-night 
she attained to exalted supplication to the 
living God, and she prayed for nothing except 
that Alex Yandell’s only boy might live — that 
he might live ! live ! live ! live ! 

Not a word for herself ! not a word for the 
man that she loved ! She prayed for nothing 
except the life of the boy. 

The horse that was to take Yandell to the 
station was at the door, Margaret heard the 
sharp click of restless hoofs on the stone 
pavement, and knew that the last words of 


78 ' Twixt Love and Law. 

adieu were being said — and still she wrestled 
and pleaded with bowed head : 

“ Merciful Father, spare his boy.” 

He was coining ; above the clamorous 
sounds of the seething wind and rain she 
heard the quick approach of his horse’s feet. 

She sprang erect, leaped across the shiny 
stones, from one to another, breathlessly, and 
dashed, a brown spectre, directly into his 
path. 

“ He will live ! he will live ! he will live ! ” 
she shouted, triumphantly, above the storm. 

“ Margaret ! ” Yandell exclaimed, as his 
beast reared and plunged with fright at her 
wraith-like appearance. “ Where did you 
come from ? What are you doing here ? ” 

“ He will live ! Alex ! ” she cried, in reply, 
“ Thank God ! he will live. Good-bye, Alex, 
good-bye. He will live — he will live ! ” 

She dashed away again into the impenetrable 
gloom of the night, which hid her from his 
sight, as the pillar of the cloud hid the chil- 
dren of Israel when the waters of the sea 
divided. 

For a moment Yandell held his horse 




^Twixt Love and Law. 


79 


irresolute ; then, remembering that he had a 
rough road before him and that no time was 
to be lost if he would catch the night train 
he put spurs to his animal and galloped away. 

When Margaret regained her own room 
her face w'as aglow. In passing her cheval- 
glass she pleasedly smiled at herself. 

“ I look like a sea-nymph rising from her 
spray, in the curling vapor of these storm- 
drenched garments,” she said, casting them 
lightly aside. 

With blithesome step she went about her 
room, giving little womanly touches to things 
here and there, crooning meanwhile a soft 
lullaby, like a fond mother cuddling her 
babe. But remembering, when she thought 
about it, that the boy must be almost a man, 
she fell to whistling a rollicking, happy-go-lucky 
sailor-boy air. 

She knew that Roy Yandell would live, and 
the exultation of it danced in her blood. 

“ I am sorry that Alex will worry,” she said, 
pursing up her lips into musing regret as she 
unbound the shimmering coils of her hair, 
soft little tendrils of rain-curls from which had 


8o 'Twixt Love and Law, 

stolen in impish caress about her transparent 
ears and neck. “ I wish he knew.” 

When her bed toilet was made she sat by 
the leaping wood fire, reaching out pink toes 
involuntarily to its warmth, wandering into a 
reverie that followed Yandell as he rode like 
an erl-king on the wings of the night. 

How she gloried in his splendid strength, 
as she saw him spurn every danger with a 
bound ! 

Swollen streams, sudden gullies, shelving 
rocks, lowland stretches, and treacherous 
marshlands lay in his path ; and with Love be- 
fore, Love behind, Despair in his heart. Death 
following close at his side, was there ever such 
a ride ? 


CHAPTER V. 


In an upper chamber of a beautiful villa at 
Newport, Roy Yandell lay ill of fever. Above 
his pillow bent a figure in the sombre robe of 
the sisterhood. 

Mrs. Yandell had just come to the door for 
the second time that day, to inquire how the 
sufferer was getting along. 

When the boy heard her voice, for he was 
conscious now, the crisis of the fever having 
passed, his eyes opened within their darkly- 
circled lids with weary longing, but closed 
again when his mother went away without 
coming to speak to him. 

Sister Anita knew that the lad was disap- 
pointed, and she stroked his forehead with 
tenderness. 

“ Mamma is afraid that the little sisters 
will take the fever,’' she said, in explanation, 
6 8i 


82 'Twixt Love and Law. 

in a voice so low that it scarcely rippled the 
quiet of the darkened room. 

“ My father did not come ? ” 

There was a note of eager interrogatory in 
the feeble voice. 

“ Not yet.” 

Roy Yandell opened his eyes and looked 
at Sister Anita with a yearning, steady gaze — 
then turned his face to the wall. 

But the father was nearer than the boy sup- 
posed ; was, in fact, at that very moment on 
the stairway leading to his room. 

His father had just arrived, and in his 
travel-stained garments was hurrying to greet 
his boy, when at a turn of the stairs where 
the rays of light from a stained-glass window 
fell obliquely, bringing them both into sudden 
relief, he met Mrs. Yandell. 

Starting back, the unhappy man repressed 
a sound of dismay through stifling teeth. 

“ You seem surprised to see me,” his wife 
remarked ; “ it is not flattering to think that 
my husband had forgotten my existence.” 

Forgotten her existence ! What a ghastly 
joke ! 




\ 


'Tzvixt Love and Lazv, 83 

“ You wrong me, madam,” he replied ; “ I 
am conscious of nothing so much as of you. 
I hope that I see you well.” 

She bowed, and they both passed on. 

A gentle face appeared at the door in an- 
swer to his careful rap. 

“ Master Roy has been longing for you, sir. 
You will do him good,” the sister said ; and 
Yandell entered the room with a muffled step. 

But the sick boy knew who had come, and 
with a glad, touching cry reached out his 
arms. In another moment, father and son 
were locked in a warm embrace. 

“ He has been a very sick boy,” Sister 
Anita explained; “the doctors gave us no 
hope at all, but the change came suddenly, 
like the answer to a prayer.” 

“ I shall get well quick now that my father 
has come,” said the wistful youth, with the 
confidence of love. 

And from that hour he steadily gained. It 
was beautiful to see them together all through 
the days of returning strength ; it was a reve- 
lation in paternal affection, for in these first 
hours of gratitude that his son’s life had been 


84 'Twixt Love and Law. 

spared, Yandell seemed to fairly absorb the 
lad into his own strong heart, holding him 
there with a grasp which was eternal ; and the 
contact renewed life and vigor as if by magic 
within the fever-wasted frame. 

When the boy was well enough, they drove 
together or wandered idly along the beach 
where the crowds of excursionists disport 
themselves in the surf ; or, the mood being 
upon them, sought the more exhilarating 
pleasure of watching the restless ocean from 
the bold, rocky shore below the cliff. 

Yandell found it easy to stir his son’s poetic 
fancy by similes drawn from the natural 
beauties of the place ; and he took as keen 
enjoyment in calling a flash of appreciation 
to the fine young eyes, as a lover takes in 
the blush which his well-turned phrase has 
brought to his mistress’ cheek. His delight 
was boundless when Roy began making simi- 
les himself ; and when the lad likened their 
favorite ledge, against which the spray tossed 
ceaselessly, to a sentinel appointed by nature 
to resist the march of an enemy, Yandell 
caught him to his heart with pride. After 


' Twixt Love and Law. 85 

that he fell into the habit of jotting down 
the best of the boy’s imaginings. 

But perfect as these few weeks of con- 
valescence were to both son and father, 
weeks in which the former tasted the surprise 
of bodily and mental expansion under the 
stimulus of affection, and the latter the un- 
alloyed joys of fatherhood, it was impossible 
that their idling should last. 

Yandell had been thinking for days that 
such indulgence would become enervating if 
followed too long at a time ; for no one knew 
better than himself that mental discipline 
must accompany mental consciousness to se- 
cure robust development, and perhaps it was 
the reflection caught from his own thought 
which prompted Roy to open the subject of 
their future when they were sitting one morn- 
ing upon the piazza enjoying the ozone-laden 
breath of the sea. 

“ I have been thinking, sir,” he said, “ that 
I am getting well so fast, you might wish to 
send me back to the military school for the 
fall term ; and I wanted to tell you that I 
would rather not go.” 


86 . ' Twixt Love and Law. 

Yandell feigned surprise. 

“ Not go to school ! how’s that, my boy? ” 

“ You said something one day about teach- 
ing me yourself for a year. I should like that 
much better. I would promise you that I’d 
give you no trouble, sir.” 

Yandell was pleased that the hint dropped 
had found echo in the boy’s heart, but dis- 
guising the fact, he led him on to say more. 

“ I was talking nonsense then,” he said — 
“ soft nonsense to a big sick boy ; wasn’t that 
it ? ” 

“ I didn’t think so, sir ; indeed, I hoped not. 
I’d rather be with you. I hoped that we 
should travel somewhere for a year.” 

“ Travel ! Why travel ? why not stay at 
home ? ” 

Yandell was not prepared for the answer, 
which came in a blurt of perfect truthfulness. 

“ Of course I knew that you would not stay 
at home for me ! ” 

“ And why not, Roy ? ” 

His father spoke tensely, with a face rather 
grim and pale ; but he did not look up to em- 
barrass the boy. 


' T'wixt Love a 7 id Law. 87 

“You never do stay at home, sir; I could 
not expect it.” 

“ Did you ever wonder why I do not stay at 
home ^ ” 

The unfortunate man was suffering acutely, 
but he felt that the time had come for confi- 
dence between them. It was evident that the 
boy understood something of the nature of 
the difficulty which had made his father a 
wanderer. 

“ I knew, sir, that you were not very happy 
here.” 

“ What do you think makes me unhappy ? ” 
Yandell was still averting his eyes. 

“ I do not think that I could tell you, sir.” 

“ Roy ! ” his father had risen whitely. 
“ Speak the truth to me ; that is what I ex- 
pect to hear from a son of mine.” 

The lad had risen too. 

“ Father,” he said, in the tone that chil- 
dren entreat when they fear the lash. 

“ Speak the truth, Roy.” 

“I cannot, sir.” 

The answer came as firm as his own. 


88 


'Twixt Love and Latv. 


’Tis strange that you cannot speak the 
truth.” 

“ I cannot, sir ; I do not think that you 
would — want — me — to.” 

They were facing each other. 

“But I do want you to,” said Yandell. 
“ More, I command you do it. I should be 
sorry to believe my boy a moral coward.” 

The brave young lips quivered painfully: 
“I would not displease you, sir, for I love 
you better than all the world.” 

“ But you are displeasing me.” 

“ I am sorry, sir.” 

“ Is that all ?•” 

“ I cannot say more — I don’t know what to 
say.” 

“ You mean that you will not say more,” his 
father returned, mercilessl3^ 

“ I cannot reflect upon my — ” The word 
died upon his lips. He would not have 
spoken it to save his life ; but all the time his 
eyes sought his father’s with the dumb en- 
treaty of perfect love. 

A moment they held each other’s gaze ; 
then Yandell opened his arms with a raptur- 


' Twixt Love and T^aw. 89 

ous cry : “ My son, my son ! my brave boy ! ” 
and tears for which he felt no shame fell thick 
and fast upon the young head clasped close 
against his breast, and softening, yearning 
springs of tenderness stirred within him for the 
woman who had borne this boy. 

The past was forgotten in the perfectness 
of the moment. Hope renewed itself; and 
the sacred sense of the supreme relationship 
of fatherhood and motherhood filled him with 
indescribable longing to once more lift the 
veil of reserve from between his wife and him- 
self. He would go to the mother and thank 
her for giving him this son ; he would resist 
the material differences which had separated 
them, and once more seek to awaken respon- 
sive echoes of sympathy within her. There 
must be some law of progressive unfoldment 
by which to accomplish their union, and he 
would discover it for the sake of their chil- 
dren. 

How often he had indulged such dreams in 
the dreary years of the past, and how often 
his faith had recoiled upon itself he did not 
care to remember. He put the pleading 


90 


^ Twixt Love and Laiv. 


recollection of Margaret Blaine’s irresistible 
and spontaneous affinity with the finer ele- 
ments of his being resolutely from his mind, 
and with a single-hearted purpose sought his 
wife in her own rooms. 

In response to the call, “ Come in,” he 
opened the door, and paused for further invi- 
tation upon the threshold. 

Mrs. Yandell was lying at full length upon 
a luxurious reclining chair, idly swaying 
a fan. She might have been a graceful 
woman when young, but years had developed 
her figure into that type of maturity which 
approached embonpoint. Her complexion 
was still fair, but her eyes were small, and 
huddled together unpleasantly. Her mouth 
was full and red : a cupid’s bow at sixteen, at 
thirty-six it was gross. 

The trouble with pretty, voluptuous, soul- 
less girls is, that marriage will change them 
for the worse. At eighteen Mrs. Yandell had 
pleased the eye with her roundness, her 
curves, and her sea-shell tints ; but these 
beauties had proven perishable as youth. 

When she looked up and saw her husband 


’ Twixt Love and Law. 9 1 

regarding her, she ejaculated the one word, 
‘Well ! ” 

But he would not be repulsed. 

He had expected to encounter surprise, 
perhaps resentment ; but having deliberately 
shut his eyes to the fact that natures like his 
own and hers do not change with years, 
except it be to ripen into the fuller maturity 
of their promise, he was borne on by his own 
enthusiasm. He would arouse the love and 
pride of the mother nature, as his own father 
emotions had been aroused, and the rest 
would take care of itself. 

There can be no doubt that the first touch 
of the miniature reproduction of himself first 
place’d within a young father’s arms fills him 
with a certain inexpressible, awesome delight; 
but the emotion can in no wise be compared 
to the rapture of the hour in which the soul 
of the boy speaks independently as a man, 
with all the fine courage and nobility for 
which the father has prayed. 

Yandell was an idealist of a high order, an 
artist and a poet in emotion ; and moreover 
he was a strong man. Whatever swayed 


92 ' Tzvixt Love and Lazv. 

him at all, swayed him powerfully ; so power- 
fully indeed that he was apt to deny, for the 
moment at least, the force of other dominant 
and opposing elements; and it happened for 
this reason that he believed it a psychological 
impossibility that the exquisite fervor of his 
own sensibilities should not communicate 
itself to the mother-nature when he crossed 
the room, and kneeling, raised her hands to 
his lips. She did show surprise. 

“ I have come to speak to you about our 
boy,” he said ; “our Roy.” 

How that other woman whose emotional 
nature responded to his own as the silvery 
aspen responds to the delicate breath of sum- 
mer would have thrilled beneath the delicious 
vibrations of his voice as it dwelt upon the 
words our boy, our Roy”! But this one, 
who did not understand him, turned a pair 
of small eyes upward, with a quizzical expres- 
sion. 

“ He is a splendid fellow 1 true as steel ! he 
will make a noble man. I want to thank you 
for giving me such a son, Gerta.” 

She made a little impatient movement. 


'Twixt Love and Lazo. 93 

“ It was never a difficult matter for me to 
give you children,” she said. 

“ But boys like our Roy are rare,” he 
replied, gently, although her tone fell upon 
his sensitive soul discordant as the twang of 
an unpracticed bow across the strings of a 
violin. 

“Oh, Roy is a good enough boy, I sup- 
pose,” she said, “though he has some odd 
notions about him.” 

“ He has a rather high-strung and imagina- 
tive nature,” said Yandell, “ and I have no 
doubt that he does seem different from other 
boys of his age at times ; but he has a warm, 
true heart. We have reason to be proud of 
him, Gerta.” 

“ You always made a big fuss over that 
boy, and seemed to like him better than the 
other children. I dare say you do it because 
you think that he takes after you. But all 
the children are alike to me. Tm fond 
enough of them all.” 

“As‘ a mother should be,” returned the 
husband smilingly, although her cold, mater- 
nal platitudes were icicles to his fervid heart. 


94 Twixt Love ajid Law, 

He was beginning to feel rather awkward, 
for it was just dawning upon him that this 
reopening of a chapter in a closed book 
might, after all, end disastrously. He had 
been carried away by one of his old enthu- 
siasms, which were no more comprehensible 
to her than a Sanscrit text to a boor. 

And she had not changed. When he asked 
for the bread of sympathy, she still gave him 
a stone. But if he had failed to infuse his 
own rather romantic imagery concerning their 
son into her veins, the propinquity of a man 
upon whom she had the legal claims of mar- 
riage had not been without effect, and she 
turned toward him with ill-concealed triumph 
in her look and tone. 

“ I suppose that you mean me to understand 
that you have come back to live with me 
again,” she said, with such naked unreserve 
implied that the question staggered him. 

To men like Yandell, intimate relations 
with women are holy or brutal according to 
the circumstances governing them : the 
former when both soul and body are subjected 


’ Tzvixt Love and Latv, 95 

and enchained ; the latter, when soul and sense 
are divorced. 

He was shocked to the quick, and in the 
sudden revulsion of feeling which he suffered 
it was not possible to disguise the bitterness 
of his disappointment. 

“Gerta,” he said, beseechingly, “for our 
children’s sake let us forget ourselves for a 
few moments.” 

She rose resentfully. 

“ What are you here for ? ” 

came because you are the mother of 
my children,” he said, forcing himself to be 
gentle to her. 

“ I am to understand that you came on their 
account then, and not mine.” 

“The reason compliments you more than 
any other that I might give ; you must feel it 
so, Gerta. Before children were born to us, 
you were to me a pretty woman who had won 
my affection ; now you are their mother, and 
they are part of my immortal being.” 

' “ That is, I suppose, a polite way of tell- 
ing me that I am no longer pretty, and you 
are no longer affectionate,” she replied, irri- 


•5 


g6 'Tzvixt Love and Laiv. 

tatingly. “The children cannot be denied, 
or—” 

“ Stop, Gerta ! ” commanded Yandell, 

I sternly, sensing what she was about to say, 

while there was lime to prevent it. “ You 
shall not say what you know to be unjust and 
degrading to us both.” 

“ Shall not,” she repeated, mockingly. 
“ Well, really, Alex, your manners have not 
improved since I saw you last.” 

“ I beg your pardon,” he said, quickly, not 
feeling spirit for bickering. “ I did not intend 
to assume a tone of authority with you. I am 
sorry that we cannot understand each other 
better.” 

“ Whose fault is it ? ” she demanded, with 
an accusing tone. 

“ Who knows,” he replied, wearily. “ I 
|: should be glad to feel that we were united for 

■ our children’s sake.” 

V; “ You are always talking about the chil- 

i dren’s sake. I should think that a woman 

! who had consented to bear six children, when 

I most women now refuse to have any, might be 

allowed to forget the fact for a little while 


'Twixt Love and Law. 97 

at a time ; but you always flung them into my 
face. My mother told me often enough that 
I should regret giving in to your fine notions 
about having children, and I do. It is a 
great mistake ! children ruin a woman’s looks, 
besides interfering with her pleasures in life. 
If I had my days to live over again I would 
not bear a child to please any man.” 

“ If we had our lives to live over again, with 
experience to guide us, there is no doubt but 
we might both avoid many mistakes,” said 
Yandell, almost bitterly, a great wave of re- 
membrance sweeping over him, upon which 
was borne a woman’s face, delicate but dis- 
tinct ; a face full of rich, passionate soul 
sentiment, with eyes which mirrored every 
changing shade of his own complicated nature, 
as a pellucid lake reflects the objects which 
embrace it. “ But it is too late to talk about 
that, and I would that we might learn how to 
make the best of what we have.” 

“ And who hinders it ? ” asked Mrs. Yan- 
dell, with an injured air. “ I am sure that I 
do not. I have a great deal to bear, as every- 
body knows. There are those who do not 
7 


98 ' Twixt Love and Law. 

hesitate to say that I am a badly neglected 
woman.” 

Yandell bit his lips to" keep the burning 
reply upon them from rushing into speech. 
When he could control himself sufficiently to 
trust his voice, he said : “ The world is always 
ready with judgment upon what it does not 
understand. I have never wished to neglect 
you, Gerta ; the one dream of my life has 
that we might become more, instead of less to 
each, other.” 

“Then why did you refuse to live with 
me?” 

He met her question squarely, moved by an 
impulse of truth which was too strong for 
resistance : “ Because I did not wish to 
degrade you or myself.” 

“Your reason was a very fine one,’^ she re- 
plied, with ill-concealed sarcasm. “ I do not 
think that everybody would understand it.” 

“ Nor is it necessary that they should. A 
man’s private relations with his wife are not 
matters for outside discussion and interfer- 
ence. What is, or is not, should rest between 
ourselves and God.” 


'Twixt Love and Law. 99 

“ Servants do not think so ; they know a 
great deal more about family affairs than we 
give them credit for. There is not a servant 
in our employ who does not know that you 
have thrown me off. It is not a very pleasant 
matter for a woman to feel that her servants 
are saying that she has not the charms to 
hold her husband’s love, and wondering if he 
goes elsewhere.” 

“Gerta, spare me such coarseness, unless 
you wish me to think that you regret the 
incidental relations of marriage more than 
affection and companionship,” said Yandell, 
with keen disgust. 

Mrs. Yandell bristled in reply, and said, 
insinuatingly : “ I cannot help what people 
are saying, and I must confess that I have 
often wondered at the great change in you.” 

“ But you have never suspected me of un- 
faithfulness, Gerta,” Yandell retorted, chal- 
lenging her gaze. 

“ And why not ? she demanded, almost 
flippantly ; “ you did not object to my caresses, 
nor deny me yours, when we were first mar- 
ried. There must be some reason for it now.” 


100 


'Twixt Love and Law. 


“There is a reason; you are right, Gerta,” 
said Yandell, with dignity — “ a reason so 
potent that I was a fool to think that it could 
be overcome/’ 

He was thoroughly aroused, and alive to 
the fact that the breach between them had 
widened past spanning. 

“ I married you when we were both young. 
My faith was of the enthusiastic and impossi- 
ble kind, and it made everything rose-hued. 
One child and another came to us so quickly, 
as added links between us, that I did not 
realize that you were not filling my nature, 
nor I yours, until it was too late. I could 
curse myself for that mistake ! ” 

He paced up and down the room, with 
head bowed and hands clenched behind him, 
for several minutes, his face working pain- 
fully. 

She watched him with a kind of nervous 
bravado meanwhile, wondering if she had 
gone too far. She had not intended to do 
that. Although she could not resist the dispo- 
sition to whisper her miserable suspicions 


^ Twixt Love and Law. loi 

she did not wish to drive him from her alto- 
gether. 

Presently he paused in his tempestuous 
walk, and facing her with steadier resolution 
than she had ever seen upon his face before, 
continued, in a firm and measured voice : 

“There is no use in deceiving ourselves 
with false hopes ; I cannot make you happy, 
and you do not understand me. Our Creator 
knows that I regret the hopelessness of it 
more than I should regret leaving you a 
widow, and free, this hour. But so it is, and 
so it must remain. We cannot doff our in- 
herited characteristics any more than an Ethi- 
opian can change his color. There was, 
perchance, a time when we might have come 
nearer to each other by the exercise of mutual 
forbearance and determination, but even that 
day is past, and nothing remains but the same 
unalterable, indestructible antagonisms which 
have made marriage between us such a miser- 
able farce from almost the first hour. No 
blame attaches to you, Gerta. I swear that I 
pity you more than I do myself, for you must 
have been a very unhappy woman. I wish 


102 ' Twixt Love a7id Lazv. 

that I could suggest something for you in the 
future which would in a measure make up 
for what you have lost in not marrying a dif- 
ferent man from myself. But that is difficult. 
If you would allow your children to sway your 
affectional nature they might in some degree 
supply the happiness which you have missed 
in your conjugal relations. I should like to 
feel that you were at least content.” 

“You are very solicitous about my happi- 
ness all at once,” she said, with irony, not 
mistaking his meaning in the least. “ I sup- 
pose that your own is so assured that I do 
not need to concern myself with suggestions.” 

Her words no longer provoked any senti- 
ment except that of compassion, and he re- 
plied without irritation. 

“ No, Gerta, I do not look forward to 
happiness. I have no hope in life beyond 
bearing my disappointment as becomes a man, 
and doing my duty by my children. I should 
like to take Roy away with me if you do not 
object, for I have a fancy for educating him 
myself; and I shall always expect to make 
suggestions regarding the others.” 


' Twixt Love and Law. 103 

“ Then you propose to leave the rest of the 
children with me.” 

Yandell looked at her in surprise. 

“I have no intention of being brutal to 
you, Gerta,” he said, flushing, “ I should not 
think of taking your children from you, of 
course.” 

“Your generosity is overwhelming,” re- 
turned Mrs. Yandell, with a most unpleasant 
sneer; “but fortunately I am not deceived 
by it. You would find two or three young 
children annoying in your travels, I have no 
doubt ; and beside, women do not take readily 
to men who are embarrassed by children. As 
I am not likely to indulge in intrigues, you can 
leave them with me safely. I will not allow 
them to interfere with you.” 

Yandell flushed again hotly; but he was 
past remonstrating with her, and thought of 
nothing but bringing the interview to a close 
as quietly as possible. He wanted to get 
away from her before she had forced his con- 
tempt. Disregarding her insinuations there- 
fore, to outward seeming, he said with quiet 
directness : 


104 'Twixt Love and Law. 

“ You will continue to occupy this house in 
summer, and the New York residence in win- 
ter, and a generous allowance will be placed 
at your disposal with Brown & Brown. You 
will be as free in every way as a married 
woman can be, while you will enjoy the pro- 
tection of my name — and I should like you 
to do me the justice to believe, of my loyalty 
also,” he added, with one of his characteristic 
impulses. 

She laughed, a most disagreeable and rasp- 
ing sort of laugh, in which disappointment and 
anger were equally blended. 

“ I am surprised that you do not propose 
divorcing me,” she said. 

Taking her seriously he replied, “Noth- 
ing would be gained by that. Our differences 
are not of a nature which the divorce courts 
could settle ; and we owe our children some- 
thing. By living apart we shall avoid the 
nervous friction of constant misunderstanding, 
while we shall be neither more nor less to 
each other than we have been ever since they 
came. There are facts which the laws cannot 
change, and our position towards each other 


'Twixt Love and Law. 105 

is one of them. For either of us to think of 
marrying again would be criminal to our help- 
less progeny. No, Gerta, divorce is not neces- 
sary ; the laws of our common human natures 
have driven us wider apart than ever the laws 
of man could do. The children are the only 
bond between us, and divorce would not 
change the fact that they render all other re- 
lations impossible to either of us.” 

She lifted her eyebrows in an exasperating 
way which spoke volumes of suspicion, and 
might easily have been irritating to a saint ; 
but Yandell had himself thoroughly under 
control. The devastation of his erstwhile 
beliefs was complete, and he was glad to bury 
them with as much expediency as possible. 

He had taken a position which neither 
scorn nor entreaty could shake. He was in 
all probability leaving his wife forever ; and 
he would not remember that his last words to 
her had been bitter wdth recriminations, what- 
ever she might say to him. To this end he 
carried himself with firmness and forbearance, 
although he felt more desolate in the hour 
that he took his farewell of her than he had 
ever felt before in his life. 


CHAPTER VI. 


Breakfast, which was served at eight o’clock 
at Castle Mere, was a delightfully privileged 
meal, at which one might or might not appear, 
according to inclination. The mail-bag, which 
Colonel Conant opened at table, often proved 
an incentive to early rising, however, and it 
w'as not an unusual sight to see all the guests 
assembled between eight and nine in the 
morning in the charming breakfast-room of 
the castle — a low-ceiled, cosy, homelike place 
into which the cheerful sun-god poured his 
earliest rays. 

It was September, and Yandell had been 
gone several weeks, during which time he had 
written a half-dozen letters to the colonel, but 
not a word to Margaret; neither had she 
expected it ; nevertheless she often revelled in 
the delight of that silent telegraphy which is 
potent as any recognized form of speech. 
io6 



*Twixt Love and Law. 107 

There were times when every mile of the dis- 
tance which lay between Yandell and herself 
seemed pregnant with subtle understandings 
which needed no interpretation of written or 
spoken words, and living in the confidence of 
their mutual love, she sometimes came near to 
forgetting the hopelessness of it all. 

It was so much easier to forget the existence 
of a woman whom she had never seen, and for 
this reason could not recall feature for feat- 
ure, to vex her peace of mind. Shadow people 
are so much less obtrusive than flesh and 
blood realities, whose hands we have clasped, 
upon whose lineaments we have gazed until 
every separate member has stamped itself 
indelibly upon heart and brain. 

The colonel had just opened the mail-bag, 
and everybody was plunged into anxiety con- 
cerning its contents. Assorting the letters 
with a running comment of wit and conjecture 
concerning the probable nature of each, he 
came upon one from Yandell to Margaret, over 
which his brow grew slightly grave. 

- Instantly divining what it was, she received 
the letter with burning fingers and wildly 


io8 ' Twixt Love and Laiv. 

throbbing heart. The contact of this vital 
thing, palpitating with his magnetism, was 
like an electric shock to her, and she came 
near to betraying the ecstasy which thrilled 
her veins. Her first thought was to fly from 
the presence of others ; but soberer counsels of 
the mind prevailed. Compelling self-posses- 
sion, she opened the envelope leisurely, reading 
its message, written more between than upon 
the lines, and afterward, passing the letters to 
the colonel, she said, at a venture, 

“ This concerns you, uncle, even more than 
me, but upon first thought I am sure that I 
should like the trip above all things.” 

The note, which was without headlines, ran 
thus : — 

“ You will be glad to know that my boy is 
well again, and to learn that I have been 
spared the blow which would have wrecked 
my peace. We are going to the mountains at 
once, and I earnestly desire that the colonel 
shall join us, bringing along your aunt and 
yourself. I know that your persuasions will 
win where my own would fail ; therefore let 


'Tivixt Love and Law. 109 

not my faith in you be shaken by the failure 
of your party to appear at the Profile House 
before September 15th. 

“With loyal remembrances, 

“ I am yours, 

“Alex Yandell.” 

“Just like the thoughtless rascal to wish to 
drag an old fellow over those back-breaking 
hills in search of rheumatism,” laughed the 
colonel, good-humoredly. 

“ Why, uncle,” cried Margaret gayly, “ peo- 
ple don’t get the rheumatism at the mountains ; 
they go there to get rid of it. 

“ That is as much as you know about the 
physical characteristics of the country, young 
woman. I tell you that those mountain fogs 
would give a brass man tweaks in his joints.” 

“ But there are no fogs in September, 
uncle.” 

“No fogs, eh ? but I say there are ; I have 
seen old Washington wrapped up in his fogs 
for a week at a time.” 

“ What, in September, uncle? ” quizzed Mar- 
garet, humorously skeptical. “ You are 


no 'Tivixt Love and Law. 

thinking of August ; now confess that you 
were never at the mountains in September.” 

“ Confess that I do not know the difference 
between Tweedledee and Tweedledum ? Not I ; 
no man in his right mind would confess to 
going to the mountains before September.” 

“ And why not, uncle ? ” demanded Mar- 
garet, with a saucy, dimpling smile. 

“ Don’t urge him, Margaret, he is already 
committed to your side by that confession,” 
declared Melvin. 

“ Not a bit of it,” asserted the colonel, 
jovially; “ I have always kept clear of commit- 
ting myself to pretty young women, and gad ! 
I’m too old to begin now.” 

“ Nonsense,” retorted Melvin ; “ you and I 
are just the right age to go into leading- 
strings, and I favor doing it for a month, with 
Margaret holding the lines. I like the sound 
of that mountain proposition.” 

“ You do, eh ? And how is it with you, 
Mehitable ?” 

Mrs. Douglas admitted that she would 
enjoy the trip. 

“ You’re in a doleful minority, uncle, and 


’ Tivixt Love and Law. 1 1 1 

must yield,” said Margaret, pulling at his 
whiskers, and planting a kiss plumply upon 
his forehead. 

“ That’s the woman of it,” said the colonel ; 
“ a little coaxing, a kiss, and if that does not 
work, a few tears, and we’re vanquished.” 

“ Then you are vanquished, uncle ?” 

“ I will admit it on conditions.” 

“ Name them.” 

“ That you will not try to get me into any 
climbing expeditions, nor insist upon crack- 
ing my bones over those mountain roads on a 
buckboard. These are two forms of indignity 
against which my years rebel, and I shall not 
budge an inch until I have your promise that 
my peace and my pipe on the hotel piazza shall 
be respected.” 

“ The easiest of promises to keep, uncle.” 

“At this distance, yes ; but how will it be 
when we get there ?” 

“ How, indeed, but as you desire, mon cher 
uncle ? ” 

“ Fair Eve beguiling the weaker Adam with 
her golden apple of promise,” winked the col- 
onel, with a grimace. 


1 12 


^Twixt Love and Law. 


“ But the modern Adam need not complain, 
when he is permitted to cool the sweat of his 
brow within the gates of a reconquered Eden,” 
responded Margaret, quickly. 

“What is it, Melvin, that Meredith says 
about the woman being forever more adroit 
than the man ? ” asked the colonel. 

“ I protest, uncle, that you shall not garble 
Meredith, and ruin his charm, which lies in the 
music of his thought.” 

“ A poet whose thoughts do not read equally 
well backward or forward is not a poet at all.” 

“ What logic !” 

“The very best, my dear niece. The 
enervating pleasure in rhythm is not an evi- 
dence of poetic appreciation : music is not 
music so long as its expression depends upon 
its harmony alone. My objection to Meredith 
has always been that he is thoroughly roman- 
tic — that schoolgirls and sentimentalists enjoy 
him lazily, as one enjoys the luxury of a 
downy couch. The senses yield to his graceful 
verse, but the soul remains untouched. He is 
not a poet.” 

“And if what you say were true, which I 


’ Twixt Love and Law, 1 1 3 

am unwilling to admit, what good is to be 
expected from applying the scalpel of too logi- 
cal criticism to everything which affords one 
pleasure pure and simple ? ” 

“ My dear Margaret,” remonstrated the 
colonel, “ no more dangerous and heretical 
spirit could possibly take possession of a 
charming woman like yourself than that which 
admits the pleasure of the senses as superior 
to the exaltation of the soul. It is an argu- 
ment which the opium smoker might urge in 
favor of his nargile, or the drunkard of his 
cups.” 

The colonel spoke with an undercurrent of 
deep meaning. It was as if a cloud had lifted 
between them, leaving naked consciousness 
revealed against a barren sky of cold, gray 
facts. He knew her secret. 

“ I do not deny that Meredith has given us 
some glorious thoughts— diamonds crystal clear, 
imperishable ; but his work is upon the whole 
frail and graceful as the spider’s web,” con- 
tinued the colonel ; “ and his philosophy, 
which is sometimes keen, must needs be served 
in the sensuous garb of picturesqueness, evok- 
8 


1 14 ' Twixt Lcve and Law. 

ing a shout of ‘ Bravo ! Beautiful ! ’ from his 
entranced and delighted audience. The true 
poet bends the knee and bows the head in 
silent rapport with immutable Truth.” • 

Margaret, whose storm-tossed soul had been 
gathering the calm needed to meet the 
sequence of an unforeseen attack, rose with 
glints of suppressed feeling trembling in the 
depths of her eyes. 

“To admit all logic superior to all pleas- 
ure is to accept once for all the doctrine of 
the ascetic, which would deprive life of every- 
thing worth living for, inasmuch as concrete 
philosophers agree that the profound logic 
of life is opposed to every form of enjoy- 
ment, negative states being evil because not 
distinctly good. The creed is false as that of 
the dyspeptic who argues that all philanthropy 
has its birth in personal selfishness, the proof 
being, that the results of generosity bring 
greater satisfaction to the principal than does 
selfishness per se. To accept such monstrous 
belief would be to damn one’s self eternally. A 
week of it would kill every human instinct 
which links my faith to a God of love. The 


’ Twixt Love and Law. \ 1 5 

human heart has rights superior to philosophy 
and more powerfully logical in their nature 
than any arbitrary laws fixed by the schools, 
rights which even Divinity is bound to respect 
or cease the work of human creation.” 

“ She speaks the truth, Colonel, and she 
speaks it well,” said Judge Brent. “ I pledge 
myself on the spot to the work of inducing 
our next congress to create the office of 
Spiritual Examiner in Chief, that you. Miss 
Blaine, may enjoy the appointment. What 
short work she would make of some of those 
long-necked, cadaverous young theologues 
whose spiritual platitudes make one wish that 
scripture garbling were a high misdemeanor. 
What say you .? ” slapping Melvin upon the 
shoulder in a transport of appreciation for 
Margaret’s outburst. 

“ Don’t imagine,” said she, with rather 
imperial playfulness, which served the pur- 
pose of disguising pain, “that I wish to 
quarrel with others for what they do or do 
not believe, while reserving the right to think 
for myself ; but Uncle Conant has a tendency 
at times toward going over to the Philistines 


Ii6 'Twixt Love and Law. 

which is alarming, and calls for protest. We 
always settle our differences, however, within 
the hour. * 

She drew the colonel’s arm about her waist 
affectionately, nestling into his arms, as chil- 
dren do into the arms of fond fathers, resting 
her head upon his shoulder. 

There was a quality of irresistible sweetness 
about her which seemed at times to embrace 
all who came within her influence ; a mellow, 
caressing tenderness which was as undefin- 
able as the kiss of the south wind. 

The colonel perceived that she was exert- 
ing this charm, in dumb entreaty to him to 
spare her when they two should be alone. 
But he was inexorable, and keeping his arm 
about her waist he drew her gently toward his 
study. Margaret was not the kind of woman 
to practice petty deception. She would not 
even attempt an off-hand denial of what was 
already confessed. She would rather have 
kept her own secret, but as it had passed into 
the colonel’s knowledge, she was ready to 
meet with outspoken honesty whatever de- 


"Twixt Love and Law. \\j 

mand he made. As they walked together, he 
said, interrogatively : 

“ You really desire this mountain trip ? ” 

“ Yes,” she responded, unhesitatingly. 

“ You are quite sure that it will be wise to 
take it under the circumstances ? ” 

“ I cannot feel that it will be unwise.” 

Would it not be better to think over the 
matter for a day or two, before deciding "I ” 

“ Perhaps ; nevertheless, I feel sure that my 
decision would be the same.” 

The colonel tapped his boot thoughtfully 
upon the polished floor. 

“Mr. Yandell and I are past the gushing 
period of our lives, uncle,” she said, with just 
a touch of hauteur ; “ I think that we may be 
trusted.” 

“ I hope that you will not deceive yourselves. 
Passion gathers force with years between 
intense natures like his and yours — and you 
are very human, Margaret.” 

The last sentence cost the colonel an 
effort. It sounded so much like accusing 
her. But she met his fear with a little dis- 
pelling smile. 


Ii8 'Tzvixt Love and Lazv. 

“ I do not pretend to discretion, uncle, nor 
to the moral power to forbid my nature that 
which it demands with the force of authority. 
I do not resist the temptation to give myself 
to him — ” 

The colonel’s face, which was turned away 
from her, grew stony with a spasm of expec- 
tancy. He could not see the upspringing 
eloquence of the darkling eyes, and for this 
reason dreaded the worst, until her next 
words reassured him, 

— “Because I think that you will under- 
stand that I could not control that fact.” 

She compelled his eyes to meet hers by the 
force of magnetic attraction. “ I love him, it 
is true” — her delicate head was poised 
with the pride of an exquisite flower lifting its 
slender stalk in pure ecstasy to the sun — 
“ and you are fearing that love might turn to 
lust.” 

He drew an inward breath, quick and 
almost stifling in its intensity. The colonel 
had read essays and listened to sermons 
directed toward suppressing the flesh and the 
devil all the years of his life, but he admitted 


'Twixt Love and Law, 119 

to himself that Margaret had for the nonce 
unaffectedly epitomized the morality of each 
and all of them. 

“ If that were possible, uncle, love would 
be a rather poor emotion, would it not ? ” 

“ You must forgive me, Margaret, for wound- 
ing you,” he said, with apologetic candor. “ I 
am a man of the world, and I know that such 
affairs too often end that way.” 

“Not when both love,'^ she replied, with 
conviction which was unanswerable. 

“ But there is a certain forbidden pleasure 
in each other’s society.” 

She lifted her head proudly. 

“ Why forbidden ? ” 

“ Because the world is apt to misunder- 
stand love between people who cannot marry, 
as you must know, my dear girl.” 

“You mean that the world is ever on the 
alert for calumnies,” she said, gravely. 

“ We may as well admit it.” 

“ And what then ? ” 

“ I am asking you that, because it seems to 
me that the sacredness of any emotion which 


120 


'Tivixt Love and Law. 


had once been dragged in the mire by idle 
tongues would be forever gone.” 

“ I will not deny that it would be terrible,” 
she said, shudderingly, “but to live in the 
shadow of such a haunting fear would make 
one little better than a moral coward.” 

She lifted her face, glowing with vivid re- 
solve, to the colonel's. 

“ We must bow to the Supreme Destiny 
which has overwhelmed us, uncle ; but it is 
our right to defy the world to poison such 
pleasure as remains to us in the intercourse of 
mutual sympathy and sacred sorrow.” 

“ Nevertheless, you will be misunderstood,” 
the colonel said, with deep feeling. 

“ By whom, uncle ? ” she asked, with sweet 
dignity. 

“ By the world, my dear girl.” 

“And you must have misunderstood me, 
uncle,” she replied, with a rich smile, “ for we 
are indifferent to the world.” 

The colonel took both of her hands within 
his own seriously. 

“ Is it not quite possible, little woman, that 
you may do brave battle with the waves of 


' Twixt Love and Law, 


I2I 


prejudice, to be overwhelmed by their bitter- 
ness after all ? These little hands seem to 
me very frail and delicate.” 

“ But Alex’s hand is big and strong,” Mar- 
garet replied, with a touch of her old playful- 
ness. 

“ But you must not forget that Alex’s heart 
and hand are divided against themselves. 
Admitting his heart 5^ours by divine law, as 
you have made yourself believe, you will not 
deny that his hand is another’s by human law ; 
the logic of which is, dear girl, that Alex, as a 
brave and just man, is bound to protect the 
other in all human emergencies. Were the 
world to raise a question between you and 
her, he must sacrifice your peace to hers, or 
prove himself a traitor to his marriage vows. 
Are you ready for such a possibility "i ” 

“Uncle!” 

Margaret buried her face tremblingly upon 
his shoulder, after that one agonized cry, 
clinging to him helplessly. Presently she 
raised a despairing face, and from between 
her white lips, words, hot and passionate from 


122 'Twixt Love and Law. 

the heart, came icy cold, frozen by the effort 
of speech. 

How cruel it is ! I have never seen it 
that way before. I feel that it will make me 
— wicked ! ” The colonel stroked her soft 
hair remonstratingly. “It will, it will ! I 
know that it will ! If faith in everything is 
killed, there will be nothing for virtue to live 
upon. I shall not care what becomes of me.’^ 

She slipped from him in the very abandon 
of passion. Her long hair, unloosed from 
its comb by contact with his encircling arm, 
clung about her, as dank seaweed clings to 
the drowning while the impotent struggle of 
death goes on. 

The colonel stooped to raise her. 

“Margaret, dear, don’t exhaust yourself. 
I am sorry that I have shocked you, but to 
meet truth with such an outburst is unnatural 
and morbid.” 

“ My God ! ” she moaned, “ he kills the 
soul within this miserable body, and then bids 
the clay rise to meet truth with dignity due 
and discreet. Ha ! ha ! he must want to be 
funny.” 


' Twixt Love and Law, 123 

“ Margaret, Margaret,” the colonel said, 
lifting her to her feet, while her laugh rang 
out chillingly as that of a mad woman, “ your 
suffering must certainly have unsettled your 
mind. You poor girl, listen to me ; under- 
stand me.” 

“ I understand you,” she said, sagaciously. 
“ I understand you perfectly. I was deceiving 
myself, and trying to live with an empty heart 
because I thought that God was good, and 
man true, and you have taken away even the 
husks. They might not hold a kernel of 
truth, but they saved me, and now I am 
damned ! ” 

“ Margaret,” her uncle said, in a deep, 
grave voice, “ this mood must pass away ; 
even our Saviour, the Son of God, suffered 
such bitterness as a mortal that he prayed 
for the cup to pass from him.” 

But all in a moment her despair changed 
to beseeching. 

“Give me back my faith,” she cried, with 
appealing hands. “ You had no right to take 
that from me. I cannot live by logic, uncle ; 
I must have faith, and love. I know myself 


124 ' Twixt Love and Law. 

better than you do, and what is safest for me. 
Give me back my faith. Oh, God ! give me 
back my love. What is the world that I 
should fear it ! Shall I tremble before grov- 
elling worms ? Never ! Don’t teach me cant 
and hypocrisy, unless you bid me serve the 
devil.” 

The colonel was touched to the quick. 
“ My dear Margaret, let us look matters 
fairly in the face. I do not question your 
faith in the righteousness of your love, but we 
are compelled to remember, whether we wish 
to or not, that the legal wife has rights rec- 
ognized by the world as pre-eminent, no 
matter how little she may have been to her 
husband in the moral and sentimental view of 
the relation. The law invests marriage with 
certain arbitrary virtues which make the wife 
sacred in the eyes of the law-abiding world.” 

“ You do not need to remind me that the 
laws of man take precedence over the laws of 
God where hearts are involved,” said Marga- 
ret, bitterly. 

“ But I must remind you that the civil rite 
of marriage is not always the mockery that 


'Twtxt Love and Law. 125 

this miserable affair of Yandell’s would make 
it seem. Fortunately there are more happy 
than unhappy marriages ; and I should be 
sorry to know that one individual experience 
had upset the teachings of a lifetime, and 
driven you into toleration of any such lax and 
confusing doctrine as that of union without 
ceremony.” 

Margaret looked at him steadily with deep- 
ening color. 

“ You alarm yourself needlessly, uncle,” 
she said, rather haughtily. “ I am little versed 
in social economics, but I am not indifferent 
to the fact that there must be some recog- 
nized protection for children.” 

“ You do not go far enough in your logic, 
my dear niece, for there must be a recognized 
form of protection for husbands and wives as 
well ; beside which, property rights and home 
relations come in for a share of recognition. 
The utopian scheme of uniting hearts accord- 
ing to God’s laws is well enough as far as it 
goes, but it does not go far enough when it 
stops short of the legality recognized as essen- 
tial and honorable by the wisest minds of the 


126 'Twixt Love and Law, 

day. What is there in the marriage cere- 
mony to strike terror to the hearts of people 
who have made up their minds that nature 
meant them for eacli other ? Only a fool 
would pretend that it is better to enter into an 
unrecognized than a recognized form of union. 
It is the devil’s argument for betraying trust- 
ful women into the arms of cowardly men.” 
The colonel was unmistakably in earnest. 
“ A few may honestly believe in the doctrine, 
but they are weak and illogical beings who do 
not trouble themselves with legitimate premise 
and conclusion. If a man is honestly in love, 
or a woman either, for that matter, no civil or 
religious form binding upon them is going to 
change that fact ; and if a man and woman 
agree to live together without love, surely they 
need the protection which the state affords to 
the legally married.” 

Margaret was densely excited : “ That is 
the point, uncle ; the state protects every- 
thing which is offered it in the name of 
marriage,” she said, “ with the result that 
the relation is losing its sacredness, and im- 


'Twixt Love and Law, 127 

morality is learning to cloak itself under 
legality.” 

“ But no helter-skelter arrangement of the 
marriage reformers can change that fact, which 
rests with men and women themselves, no 
less outside than inside the legal marriage. 
It is not by educating youth to contempt for 
the form of marriage, but in developing a 
sense of what gives one the right to enter into 
the relation at all, that the happiness of 
hearts and the sanctity of homes may be at- 
tained. Bringing abstract law down to its 
concrete application, there is no denying that 
what has cost Yandell his happiness was his 
own mistake, and not the fault of the law by 
which he is bound.” 

“ He does not accuse the law or hold any- 
one responsible but himself,” said Margaret, 
with the lofty impulse of conscious pride in 
Yandell’s sense of honor. “And he would 
not wrong the mother of his children even if 
there were no law but his own conception of 
justice.” 

The colonel looked calmly skeptical, al- 
though he was ready to admit to himself that 


128 ' Twixt Love and Law. 

he did not understand the position that this 
incomprehensible feminine compound of rea- 
son and error had taken. 

Here he had been blazing away for several 
minutes at moral law, with the enthusiasm of 
a platform orator, thinking to set her right 
upon an important subject which he had not 
the least doubt presented itself to her moral 
vision obscurely, through the bewildering 
mist of passion ; and she now hastened to 
assure him, in substance at least, that neither 
Yandell nor herself had ever seen the matter 
in any other way. 

The colonel was figuratively knocked to 
pieces, and ready to declare a woman the 
most inexplicable result of creative Law. One 
moment he saw her in the clutch of a violent 
emotion, shivering and writhing with defiance, 
hurling scorn at respected traditions with 
recklessness little less than blood curdling ; 
and in the next, by a swift mental change, she 
was submitting her opinions to the manacles 
of worldly and vigorous prejudice. 

“I cannot quite gather where you stand 
from what you say, Margaret,” he put in, con- 


^ Twixt Love and Lazv. 129 

cisely, as she went on talking in a vague and 
rather fragmentary way about the general law 
of love. 

“ I suppose that I am exasperatingly obscure 
in my powers of expression,” she admitted, 
“for I have no genius in that particular 
direction ; but I know what I feel.” 

It would be a matter of satisfaction to me 
if I could know too, Margaret,” the colonel 
responded, with just a touch of warmth. “ I 
have stood somewhat in the relation of a 
father to you for a good many years, and I 
must say that I am not willing to extend my 
protection to any affair which I do not under- 
stand. I am not ready to take this mountain 
trip until I know what I am doing.” 

He felt better when he' had put the matter 
so plainly that he did not believe she could 
possibly mistake his meaning. But she was 
staring at him vaguely through a mist of sur- 
prise, paling visibly as she made sense out of 
the quick, confused echo of his words, which 
rang through her ears like the whirr of the 
ocean in the curled recess of a sea-shell. 

She had been leaning her head upon her 
9 


130 'Twixt Love and Laiv, 

elbow, on a carved mahogany mantel, above 
•which hung a large circular mirror of a quaint 
old-fashioned pattern. Turning herself with 
the heavy movement of a petrified thing she 
brought the other elbow into a corresponding 
position, and gathering her luxuriant front- 
locks into her right hand, she lifted them off 
her brow, studying her own face with impartial 
scrutiny. Then she reached out her left 
hand behind her, without taking her eyes 
from the mirrored reflection. 

“ Uncle Conant, come here,” she said. 

Wondering at her mood, he obeyed. She 
pulled him up to her by his wrist, forcing his 
face into line with her own. 

“Look at her,” she said, nodding at the 
apparition in the glass. “ She is going to 
tell you the truth, and I want to see her while 
she does it. She doesn’t look like a wicked 
woman, does she ? ” 

Without pausing for a reply to her ingenious 
and startling question, Margaret went on, point- 
ing with her finger : 

“ She loves another woman’s husband, which 
the world says is a crime ; yet she does not look 


'Twixt Love and Law. 13 1 

like a criminal, and her heart is tender. I have 
known her, even since she was a grown woman, 
to fish a fly out of water, and dry him in the 
sunshine — a silly thing to do, perhaps, but it 
was an impulse of her dislike .for suffering ; 
yet they say that wives suffer a thousand 
deaths through jealousy, when husbands prove 
unfaithful.” Her voice had sunk to a chill- 
ing whisper ; “ She does not . look as if she 
could tear another woman’s heart out of her 
breast and gloat over the agonized thing — 
she does not look like the fiend who could do 
that.” 

“ Margaret,” the colonel burst out, hoarsely, 
“ for God’s sake, come away ! What you are 
doing is horrible, and will drive you mad.” 

She was shivering from head to foot, and 
her voice came in gusts of passion from be- 
tween her white lips and set teeth : I will not 
come away. I am going to know her.” She 
was drawing closer and closer to the staring, 
panting thing in the mirror. 

The colonel laid a hand upon her shoulder, 
but she shook it off. 

“ I have got to live with her, and I tell you 


132 ' Twixt Love and Law, 

that I will know her. If she is cruel — and 
wicked — ” she was straining closer all the 
time — “she shall not deceive me! I’ll un- 
mask her. If those who know her best are 
afraid to trust her — I’ll find out the reason 
why. She shall not fool me — I’ll force it out 
of her— or— I’ll— kill her ! ” 

With one blow, the colonel, seeing that 
every fibre of that high-strung, sensitive organ- 
ization was wrought to the pitch of irrespon- 
sibility, shivered the mirror into atoms. 

“ That thing always had a disagreeable way 
of distorting one’s features,” he said, coolly, 
as if nothing had happened. “ I think we 
have kept it principally for its rather artistic 
shape.” 

“ What made you do it ? I shall never 
know her now,” said Margaret, with infinite 
pathos, while great scalding tears rolled down 
her cheeks. In the next moment she lay 
upon his arm .senseless. 


CHAPTER VII. 


When Margaret opened her eyes to con- 
sciousness, Mrs. Douglas and a maid were 
busy chafing her wrists and administering 
some simple restoratives. 

“ What made — me — do — it ? Mothel Hetty, 
I — oh ! I remember ; it was awful,” shudder- 
ingly. 

“There, there, darling; don’t excite your- 
self again,” said Mrs. Douglas, tenderly; 
“ you were tired and nervous, and the morning 
is a very warm one. You can go, Angelica ; I 
will call you if I need you,” dismissing the 
maid. “ Just lie still, dear, until you feel per- 
fectly strong : it is always best to keep quiet 
for several hours after such an attack ; it may 
save a recurrence. I will sit here beside you, 
and fan you. Try to go to sleep, it will be 
better for you than a tonic ; you will be all 
right by afternoon.” 


i33 


T 


134 'Twixt Love and Law. 

But Margaret had lifted herself to her arm ; 
“I am better now, Mother Hetty; you need 
not fear for me again ; I am not given to faint- 
ing often, you know,” with a little apologetic 
gesture. 

“ No, dear, of course you are not,” said 
Mrs, Douglas, reassuringly. “ It was nothing 
of any lasting consequence ; everybody is 
liable to such an attack at times.” 

“ But this was of consequence. Mother 
Hetty^it was of cruel consequence,’ said 
Margaret, struggling to her feet with difficulty, 
because of her loosened and half-falling gar- 
ments. “ It was almost a death-blow.” 

I She was shivering violently. 

I “No, not in the way that you think ; I am 

I not sick. It was here,” pressing her hand 

\ to her heart ; “ Uncle Conant does not trust 

j ' me, and it hurts like a stab. I can’t help it, 

: but it does.” 

; “Nonsense, dear!” said Mrs. Douglas 

1 promptly; “why should not Uncle Conant 

■ trust you ? You must have misunderstood 

! him.” 

! 

I 

I 

I 

i 

i 

i 

1 


* Twixt Love and Law. 135 

“ No,” returned Margaret, positively, “ there 
was not a chance for it ; he said so himself.” 

Mother Hetty was touched by her manner 
and tone, and sensed the fact that something 
of deep significance must have occurred ; al- 
though the colonel had explained nothing 
when he called her to his study, and in her 
anxiety over Margaret, the shattered mirror 
had escaped her notice. “ Well, never mind 
about it now,” she replied. “ When you are 
better. Uncle Conant shall be arraigned and 
made to confess.” 

“ It is not Uncle Conant who is wrong. 
Mother Hetty,” said Margaret, with a species 
of hopeless remonstrance ; “ it is I ; I am wrong 
— all wrong. I was a great mistake from the 
first,” she continued, with moving pathos, “ I 
was always a mistake. Don’t you remember, 
I was a mistake as a child ! When you who 
w’ere so good to me tried to set me right, I 
oftener went wrong. There seems to be a 
quality of inherent wrongness about me, which 
makes me worse when I ought to be best. 
What is it. Mother Hetty ? I wish you would 
tell me ! ” 


136 , 'Twixt Love and Law. 

With nervous hands folded one over the 
other upon her lap, Margaret had dropped 
into a seat; and as she looked up with plain- 
tive inquiry from out her glowing veil of 
fallen hair, like a forlorn Peri, tears stood in 
Mrs, Douglas’ eyes. 

“ You were always a dear, sweet comfort to 
me, Margaret,” she said, with warmth ; “ your 
worst faults in childhood and since have been 
the faults of impulse. I never knew you to 
do a really malicious thing; you were mis- 
chievous and full of spirit, but far from being 
a naughty girl.” 

“ Was I not ? I thought that I was, I used 
to feel so rebellious sometimes ; and after I 
went to bed I would lie awake planning 
wicked things that I would do next day.” 

“ But I am sure that you never did them, 
dear,” returned Mrs. Douglas, gently. 

“ Perhaps my mother kept me from it,’’ 
breathed Margaret, with far-away eyes. 
“ Don’t you think it possible that God allows 
such things when he takes mothers away from 
their babies ? I know that I used sometimes 
to think such awful thoughts after the lights 


' Twixt Love and Law. 137 

were out that they would make me afraid, 
and all of the shadows in the room would turn 
into ghosts. It used to make me hide my 
head under the bed-clothes and go to sleep 
with teeth chattering; then I would dream 
that my own mother came and told me that I 
must do as mother wished, for she knew best. 
If Mother Hetty would only tell me what to 
do now ! ” 

Margaret had turned to her with irresistible 
appeal, which was no less winsome because of 
its childishness. Mrs. Douglas’ heart was 
wrung with the wish to comfort the troubled 
girl. 

“ Perhaps I can help you, if you tell me 
about it,” she said, tenderly pillowing the 
lovely head upon her breast. Margaret 
reached up one arm, clinging to her shoulder. 

“ It isn’t an easy thing to tell — it will sound 
almost — criminal — ^just as it sounded to 
Uncle Conant,” she whispered deprecatingly. 
“ But I should like to tell you — I might feel 
better for it.” 

Mrs. Douglas stroked her arm encourag- 
ingly, with a long, soothing movement. 


138 'Twixt Love mid Law. 

“ I ought to have told you before, I know 
that I ought. It has been very ungrateful in 
me not to do it. You didn’t suspect, did 
you } Uncle Conant did ; he found it out 
himself — and accused me. It hurt me terri- 
bly, Mother Hetty — I could not tell you how 
it hurt me ! ” 

Mrs. Douglas continued her gentle caress, 
with no effort to hasten the explanation which 
had begun so incoherently. 

“You do love me. Mother Hetty, don’t you.? 
Almost as if I were — just as if I were your 
own child ? ” Margaret asked, with a sort of 
haunting anxiety. 

“I do, my darling. You are the only child 
I ever had.” 

Her arms were holding the girl with a pres- 
sure more eloquent than words. 

“Yes, of course,” said Margaret, satisfiedly. 
“ I have been your child, and you must 
always love me ; you could not help it — you 
could not — even if you did not quite approve 
of me.” 

Mother Hetty’s pressure increased in fervor. 

“ How foolish I am to think that you might 


' Twixt Love and Law, 139 

not love me,” Margaret gasped rather hysteri- 
cally. “You could not help it: people can’t 
help loving when they do~can they ? I know 
that they cannot. If they could, I should not 
have loved Alex ; but I cannot help it — I can- 
not.” 

“ Alex ? ” repeated Mrs. Douglas, starting 
perceptibly. 

Margaret was clinging to her with an ap- 
pealing grasp. “Yes, Alex; Mr. Yandell.” 

“But Mr. Yandell is married,” said Mrs. 
Douglas, under her breath, with involuntary 
surprise. 

“That is it — that is just it. That is what 
is so wrong — it would not be wrong if he were 
not married.” 

Mrs. Douglas remained silent for such a 
length that Margaret began trembling with 
apprehension. 

“I am worse than you thought,” she said, 
in a heartbroken voice. “ You didn’t think it 
could be as bad as that.” 

“ I was not prepared for just thaty dear,” 
Mrs. Douglas said, after a while, with no 
diminution of tenderness, “ and I am trying 


140 'Twixt Love and Law. 

to see it all clearly. You must remember that 
this has come upon me very suddenly, and 
there has never been a time since you came 
to me that I have needed to think before I 
spoke more than now. Be quiet, while I try 
to see it just as it is, dear.” 

Margaret closed her e3^es wearily, the curl- 
ing blue-black of her lashes showing against 
her glowing cheek, like the fringe of the gen- 
tian against its heart of gold. 

“ Don’t forget that he loves she whis- 
pered presently, without opening her eyes, the 
thrilling consciousness of the main fact over- 
shadowing its horror in her tone. 

‘^Then he cannot love his wife,’’ said Mrs. 
Douglas, thoughtfully, feeling that with that 
point established she had better ground for 
advice. 

“ Of course not,’' said Margaret, as if the 
subject had never admitted of discussion. 

“ But men are generally supposed to love 
their wives,” said Mrs. Douglas, rather dog- 
matically. “ I am afraid that it is a great 
responsibility to have taken a man’s love 
from his wife, Margaret.” 


"Twixt Love and Law. 14 1 

“Why, aunt! you don’t think that I did 
that, do you ? ” cried Margaret, springing to 
her feet. “ Why, you cannot think that I am 
such a wretch as that ! He did not love her 
before he met me — they only lived together 
nominally. I didn’t change anything about 
that 1 How wicked you must think me — to 
suppose that I could break up a happy 
home I ” 

She began pacing the floor excitedly, and 
Mrs. Douglas, who had watched her moods 
from childhood, did not seek to restrain her, 
knowing that such expression would do her 
good. Moreover, she was somewhat relieved, 
for the question had — at least so far as she 
could understand it — narrowed down to the 
conventional one of divorce : and there is not 
one of us but feels glad to run to the cover of 
social or legal eustom when brought into con- 
flict with moral law. 

“ I could not have done anything so wicked 
as that I ” Margaret panted on, feverishly. “ I 
could not have deliberately set myself in the 
way of a loved and loving wife. I could not 
have stolen into their hearts when they were 


142 'Twixt Love and Latv. 

unconscious, as thieves steal into houses in 
the dark to rob — just to enrich myself ! Do 
you not understand, it was because my own 
heart was empty and his desolate ! If his 
heart had been filled there would have been 
no place for me — he would not have loved me 
then ! ” Margaret paused with restrained 
passion. 

“ I want you to understand it just as it is : 
we do not expect to marry ; we cannot do 
that ! He has to think about his children. I 
would not expect him to give up his children 
for me.” 

“ Then the matter is settled,” said Mrs. 
Douglas, drawing a breath of relief, “ and 
you want me to know that you could not help 
loving each other ? ” 

“ That is it — that is just it ” — Margaret 
nodded acquiescently — “ and I wanted you to 
know that we do not mean to do wrong be- 
cause — it would make us happier to do wrong 
than to do right.” 

Mrs. Douglas was just a little startled by 
such criminal candor. 

“ Does it ever make people happier in the 


’ Tivixt Love and Lazv, 143 

long run, think you, Margaret, to do wrong 
than ^right ? ” she asked with gentle remon- 
strance. 

“I don’t know anything about the long 
run,” Margaret returned, desperately honest ; 
“ I only know about what I feel now, and I 
think that if I could have Alex all to myself 
every hour of the day, through time and eter- 
nity, I should be happier in spite of every- 
thing than I can ever be without him, though 
I were canonized and made a saint a hundred 
times over, or even given the office of the 
Holy See itself.” 

Mrs. Douglas began to feel that the security 
of the relation between Yandell and Margaret 
hung by a rather slender thread, and she 
awaited her next words with nervous appre- 
hension. 

“ We are going to do right because of the 
children. A man couldn’t very well do wrong 
when he thought about his innocent children, 
could he ? That is, a good man could not — 
and Alex is a good man. He is much better 
and wiser than I — though I could not wrong 
little children. I could not do that ! ” 


144 ' Twixt Love and Law. 

The very thought filled her with uncon- 
scious trembling ; but her face paled iji the 
instant with the horror of an entering fear. 
She clutched Mrs. Douglas’ arm with a 
savage grasp. 

“You don’t think — that I could have inher- 
ited such a — such a thing from my father 't ” 
she gasped, in a wild whisper. “ You don’t 
think that I could forget as he forgot — if I 
were tempted ? ” 

“You are not very like your father,” Mrs. 
Douglas hastened to reassure her. “You 
are more like your impulsive, tender-hearted 
mother.” 

“ I am so glad — I am so glad,” breathed 
Margaret, with relaxing muscles. “ I am so 
glad ! And she was a very good woman, 
wasn’t she ? ” 

“ She was a sweet, loving, frail flower of a 
girl,” said Mrs. Douglas, with silent tears. 
“ She could not battle with sorrow at all. 
You are a much stronger woman physically 
than she.” 

“ And she died of a broken heart ! ” 

Margaret was sobbing audibly. 


'Twixt Love and Law. 145 

“ Something very near it, dear,” whispered 
Mrs. Douglas, with a choking lump in her 
own throat. 

“ I wonder if I shall die of a broken heart,” 
breathed Margaret, reflectively, through a mist. 

“ Heaven forbid ! ” 

“ Sometimes I feel as if it would end that 
way,” Margaret whispered, from Mrs. Douglas’ 
shoulder. 

‘ We always feel so in times of great sorrow 
or loss.” 

“ Do you think so ? ” 

“ I am sure of it. It is the instinct of suf- 
fering.” 

“ I have felt as if my heart were breaking — 
as if I could not bear it — for hours at a time,” 
Margaret confessed. “ Sometimes it seems 
so perfectly miserable to think of years and 
years in which 1 shall be nothing to him.” 

“ It is very much like death,” said Mother 
Hetty, in a hushed tone. “ But youth is elas- 
tic ; it is only now and then that one dies 
because life is empty. We live on and on, 
and other compensations come to help us 
bear regret. When I was first left alone I 


10 


146 ' Twixt Love and Lazv. 

could not see that the sun was shining in the 
heavens as it had shone, impartially for all ; 
but I have lived to feel its warmth since 
then.” 

Mrs. Douglas was somewhat agitated, and 
Margaret w'as filled with sorrow for her part 
in recalling the past. 

“ Forgive me,” she pleaded. 

“ Hush, dear, there is nothing to forgive. I 
have lived with my loss too many years for it 
to visit me as a stranger.” 

“ And you have sometimes been happyL 
breathed Margaret, almost wonderingly. 

“ I am rarely unhappy.” 

“ That is remarkable,” in a whisper of 
tragic conviction. 

“ I do not think so. It would be more 
remarkable if I could go on year after year 
receiving so many blessings and yet refusing 
to acknowledge them because I had not been 
permitted supreme happiness uninterruptedly 
to the end.” 

‘Ht must be that wives feel differently — 
from others.” 

“ They must ! It is not possible for one to 


’ Twixt Love and Law. , 147 

have known the perfectness of marriage and 
ever go back again to what was before.” 

That was not Margaret’s meaning. “ I was 
thinking,” she said, “that after one had been 
a wife there would be so much to remember 
— so much to live over and over again.” 

“ It makes the desolation more complete.” 

“ I do not think it would be so with me. 
If I could be Alex’s wife for just one day — 
if I could only once drink the very last drop 
in a burning cup of happiness — if I could 
have the experience of having been all ! every- 
thing ! earth and heaven — past, present, and 
future swept into one perfected moment of 
life — I believe that I would accept eternity 
and memory with resignation.” 

The passion of picturing such an immortal 
moment had kindled Margaret’s blood into 
flame ; her eyes were twin stars, and her 
bosom rose and fell beneath the soft folds of 
her gauzy morning robe in palpitating gusts 
of conscious feeling. 

Mrs. Douglas, who had never, even in youth, 
been a woman of such fiery impulses as those 


148 'Twixt Love and Law. 

that controlled Margaret, shook her head 
dubiously. 

“ The dreariness of loss would not be less.” 

“ But no one could take from me what had 
been. Now I have nothing ! My hands are 
empty, and prudence bids me hide my heart 
from the eyes 'of a too suspicious world. 
Even what I might enjoy innocently enough in 
the face of heaven is poisoned by the eternal 
trail of the serpent, and sometimes I feel that 
its sting is in my very soul.” 

“ I do not think you can ever hope to be 
contented again until you have gone beyond 
the waves of this turbulent emotion, my dear 
girl, into the calmer waters of independent 
self-control.” 

“ But that is impossible ; I cannot become 
independent of my love — I cannot; I have 
tried it! I believe that I can live a blameless 
life, if I am true to it; but I cannot live 
against it. I cannot tear my own heart out 
and cast it from me more than I could do 
that with another woman’s.” 

“ Then your future promises to be a stormy 
and desperate one, and a higher power alone 


'Twixt Love and Law. 149 

can save you,” said Mrs. Douglas, with deep 
anxiety, in spite of her wish to soothe and 
comfort the passionate girl. 

“I know that that is the way the world looks 
at it — but I thought that you might see it dif- 
ferently.” 

“ How could you expect me to see it differ- 
ently, Margaret, when all experience proves 
that self-indulgence leads on to recklessness? ” 

“ But there is to be no self-indulgence,” 
returned Margaret, with a wave of color shew- 
ing through the rich cream of her skin. 

“ Then I do not understand you.” 

“ What do you call self-indulgence. Mother 
Hetty ?” 

“ Everything except forgetfulness — the reso- 
lute putting aside of all temptation.” 

“ What a cruel alternative ! ” 

“ It is the only one.” 

“ And I tell you that it is impossible with 
me. I cannot forget.’' 

“ But you do not invite the means — work, 
Margaret — humanity's work ! ” 

“That is the same trite creed which has 
been in force since the world begun,” said 


150 'Twixt Love and Law. 

Margaret, almost harshly ; “ and with some 
natures it does avail. But I might have the 
arms of an octopod to reach out in as many 
different directions for work to do, and yet I 
could not forget ! I should still remember — 
and my heart would still be resisting its cruel 
fate.” 

“ What a poor comforter I am proving 
myself ! ” Mrs. Douglas said, quite helplessly, 
but without impatience. 

“ And I must seem wickedly rebellious and 
ungrateful to you,” returned Margaret, sorrow- 
fully. “ But that is where I am wrong. I 
never can see things as other people do ; I 
never can — and you would not wish me to 
pretend.” 

“ No, dear ; your candor has always been a 
virtue. Nevertheless, I cannot help wishing 
that you might learn the lesson of life without 
the cruel necessity for sounding the bitterest 
depths of Marah.” 

“There is sorrow whichever way we may 
turn, Mother Hetty ; but if we cannot be 
friends — sorrow will become despair ! ” 


' Twixt Love and Lazv. 15 1 

“ And if friendship should fail you, my dar- 
ling girl ? ” 

Margaret raised an arm of passionate 
entreaty. “ Don’t, mother Hetty ! don’t think 
that it will. Don^t make me doubt God’s 
goodness.” 

Mrs. Douglas heard the girl with curdling 
emotion. Her words sounded like blasphemy 
or the foreshadowing of a lost soul. 

“ Oh ! how I am shocking you ! How 
wicked I am ! ” wailed Margaret, with remorse 
for the pale, drawn face. 

“You do shock me, Margaret, when you 
challenge the will of God,” Mrs. Douglas 
returned, shakenly. 

“ But why should it be God’s will that I 
should suffer? Why? I don’t believe that it 
is His will ; I don’t believe that He singles out 
mortals to torture them that way. It may be 
theology but it is not Godlike ! I know that 
He means everybody to be happy — and loved ! 
Why, the Bible teaches love. Mother Hetty, 
on every page — God’s love'; love for one’s 
fellow-creatures, love for little children, love 
for one’s neighbors — nothing but love ! It 


T- 


152 ' Tivixt Love and Lazv. 

must be Godlike to love — and how I do love ! 
I must be the sister of God’s angels to love 
as I do.” 

The passionate sufferer threw her arms at 
full length upon the table, burying her face 
upon them with great gusts of emotion. 

Mrs. Douglas was overwhelmed with the 
sense of her own impotency in dealing with 
such tempestuous suffering. She had known 
love herself, such love as most women feel : 
the quiet, satisfying, affectionate, rather im- 
personal kind, which having once been given 
to a man — any man, from motives of prudence, 
or respect, or attraction, or the wish to be 
married — remains fixed to the end, self-respect- 
ing, gentle, domestic ; but she could not even 
imagine such love as Margaret felt, love 
whose violence uprooted traditions and devas- 
tated ancient beliefs with the fury that the 
arm of a giant cyclone wrenches the powerful 
creatures of nature from their feet, hurling 
them to everlasting doom ; love which could 
have gone down to death for its object with 
the smile of eternal triumph upon the lips, 
answered by a smile from the heart of its heart. 


' Twixt Love and Law. 153 

Mrs. Douglas knelt beside Margaret, with 
an arm about her waist, and something like 
awe in her voice. 

“ I cannot advise you, my dear, dear child,” 
she said ; “ you have gone beyond my power 
to comprehend ; but God will surely be with 
you ; I know He will,” 

Margaret lifted her pale, passion-swept face 
with the instinct of gathering faith. “He will. 
He will ! do not doubt that He will ! He 
gave me the power to love, and He understands. 
It may be all wrong, but if it is. He knows 
how to take care of wrong people just the 
same as He takes care of those that are — 
calmer and right. I don’t think I am a very 
good Christian, Mother Hetty, but I do be- 
lieve that.” 


CHAPTER VIII. 


When Yandell left Newport with his son, he 
was in a frame of mind which an enemy might 
have pitied. 

The future seemed to hold little for him 
except regret and remorse. Roy was the one 
bright spot amid the desolations of heart and 
home, and to him the strong man clung as the 
shipwrecked cling to a passing spar, while the 
great ship of Fate bore down upon him from 
the stormy horizon of a sea of engulfing 
facts. 

The first move that they made was to the 
quiet little village of Littleton, on their way to 
the mountains. Here in sight of the distant 
hills, rugged and barren at their summits as 
the climax of his own sad experience, Yandell 
made an effort to pull himself together and 
lay plans for the coming years. 

With his boy he talked over some of his 

154 


'Twixt Love and Law. 


155 


own experiences when he first set out as a 
traveller, seeking by graphic word-paintings 
of places and people to draw forth some 
expression of preference which should deter- 
mine their place of residence for the next year 
at least. 

One day it was England, the next U was 
Germany or Italy, then it was some other 
country which YandelFs descriptions had 
made more attractive than either 1 and finally 
they decided upon Saint Jean de Luz in the 
shadow of the Pyrenees. They would go 
there for the winter and settle down, the boy 
to his studies, and his father to the duties of 
tutor and the interests afforded him by his 
pencils and brush. 

There, with the enchanting blue of the lake 
for a foreground, and the distant purpie of the 
mountains at their back, like a walled fortress 
dividing them from the world which Yandell 
so heartily wished to renounce, they would 
live in dual quietness— and perchance forget- 
fulness. 

It was decided that they should sail not 
later than the first of October, as soon as the 


156 'Twixt Love and Lazv. 

lad had gained the additional strength needed 
to resist the trying effects of a long sea-voyage. 
Three or four vi^eeks of the mountain air for 
him — fhen farewell, America ! farewell, home ! 
farewell, love ! 

Like his own death-knell these farewells 
rang through Yandell’s brain in the order of 
the writing. It might be years before he 
would return again, years which would make 
him a stranger to the land of his birth, a 
homeless wanderer, a scarcely remembered 
ghost from a dead and buried past. 

At first, he determined not to meet Mar- 
garet again ; but as days passed, the longing 
to look upon her face, to see her move with 
that gliding, caressing grace which was all her 
own : to hear her voice, whose tones even at a 
distance suggested an impalpable nearness — 
to carry away the fragrant recollection of 
something, inconsequential although it might 
be, something which she had said or done in 
the last hours before his departure into exile, 
grew too strong for resistance ; and the argu- 
ment that such a parting would be like the 
leave-taking from the dead vanquished the 


" Twixt Love and Law. 157 

last of his scruples, with the result which has 
already been set forth — he wrote to Margaret. 

In a few days, he received the following 
answer to his letter, which began like his own, 
without headlines : 

“ I cannot tell you what I have suffered 
during the last twenty-four hours. I am one 
who has been dragged through the very flames 
of a burning hell of doubt and despair, until 
soul, sense, feeling, hope have succumbed 
to the suffocating fumes. Uncle Conant and 
Mother Hetty know all — everything ! Do not 
blame them too cruelly, for they love me ; 
they do indeed ! Never doubt that, Alex. If 
I were their own flesh and blood they could 
not love me more. But I am to them what a 
rebellious young eaglet, with soaring, unquiet 
instincts, would be to a domestic brood. The • 
flights of passion upon which I am borne by 
the wings of my heart are just as incompre- 
hensible to them as the love of the untamed 
bird for the unassailable places of nature and 
air to the homely fowl. Yet I cannot fly away 
and leave them ! I cannot do that — and I am 


158 ' Tivixt Love and Laiv. 

not sure that you would uphold me in doing it 
if I could. What am I saying ! I know that 
you would not ! You would bid me return, 
submit my wild pinions to the singeing flames 
of domestic and conventional traditions, and 
settle into a life of apathetic resignation. I 
have anticipated you, Alex, and I obey you. 

“ My heart is broken ; my spirit is dead ; life 
is a burden ; immortality a haunting supersti- 
tion ; and even my faith in God’s ultimate 
mercy to man so frail a thing that the next 
breath of suffering may dispel it altogether, 
leaving me nothing but chaotic despair. For- 
give me — but. God and his angels pity me, if 
you forget me, 

“ Margaret.” 

Yandell had felt his cup of bitterness full to 
the brim before he received Margaret’s letter; 
but he had not even dreamed of the possible 
anguish in the overflow. 

For all the long, dragging hours of a night 
which seemed interminable he walked be- 
neath the star-flecked .immensity of eternal 
space — on, on, sensing the exhilaration of 
movement, but unresponsive and dumb to the 


' Tivixt Love and Lazv. 159 

solemn grandeur of what lay around him, 
until day, like a radiant creature born from 
the embrace of the night, sprang out of the 
womb of the east, flaunting her pink and gold 
loveliness into his face with a wooing caress 
which thrilled his heart into struggling con- 
sciousness. 

With a long, awakening breath he inhaled 
the fragrant, dewy perfume of the bewitching 
young syren’s personality, drinking in long 
draughts of the refreshment which she offered 
with the generous impartiality of a wanton 
coquette. 

“The morning is beautiful,” he involuntarily 
exclaimed ; and the compliment brought him 
more kisses, dewy and warm. His enchant- 
ress seemed bent upon making him confess 
that it is something to live, though living 
meant nothing more than yielding soul and 
sense to the ravishments of nature. 

With immediate consciousness came the 
straggling sense of his son’s surprise and dis- 
may, when awakened, to find that his father’s 
bed had not been touched for the night ; and 
the instinct of love for his boy quickened 


i6o 'Tivixt Love and Law. 

Yandell’s footsteps as he retraced his way to 
the nearest farm-house. 

He had lost all sense of the distance that 
he had travelled in that night’s walk, and was 
surprised to be told that he was still ten full 
miles from the point of his starting. By a 
generous offer of money, however, he secured 
the use of a horse from his informant, and 
reached his hotel before breakfast was served, 
but not before Roy had discovered his ab- 
sence. 

“ I received most important news last night, 
which made sleep out of the question,” he 
said to his boy, “ and I have spent the time 
out-of-doors.” 

“ I hope that it was nothing annoying — or 
wrong from home, sir.” 

“ Nothing whatever,” his father replied; it 
was of an entirely different nature — a private 
matter of my own, about which I shall tell you 
in time — a few years hence, when you are old 
enough to see the matter with judgment.” 

And with this promise the boy was content, 
although his heart was sorely grieved by the 


'Twixt Love and Law. i6i 

set, drawn lines of suffering about the fine 
lips and brow. 

In that night’s struggle with self — the good 
man with the earth man, the immortal with 
the mortal, spirit with passion, the triumph of 
the former had been quite signal and com- 
plete. 

Yandell had determined to respect the posi- 
tion which Margaret had taken : he would go 
away without seeing her again ; indeed, there 
was nothing else to be done. Anything else 
would have been the most culpable weakness, 
he felt. 

But he wrote her a letter of farewell, and at 
the same time wrote to the colonel. 

His letter to Margaret was brief : 

“ Good-bye, Margaret, heart of my heart, 
my soul’s companion, my other and immortal 
self — good-bye. I have never been a praying 
man, but for your sake I shall become one. 
I wdll not deny to you, however, that I have 
done most desperate battle with the tempta- 
tions of the flesh — the longing for the mere 
possession of your warm human self, your soul 

II 


1 62 'Twixt Love and Law. 

incarnated in the form of a lovely and be- 
loved human personality ; but it would not be 
enough. Love demands the absolute ! Less 
would be gratification, but not happiness ; the 
one fleeting as the moments ; the other eler- 
nal as the ages. It is to the omnipotence of 
this fact that I submit, that we must both sub- 
mit. Good-bye, Margaret ; good-bye, dear 
heart.” 

To the colonel he wrote: 

“ Friend Conant, I must see you before I 
leave America. I must be permitted to do 
both Margaret and myself the justice of a 
plain-spoken interview with yoii. We, my boy 
Roy and I,. sail October 2 ; and meantime I 
am yours to command. Please convey my 
sincerest regards to Mrs. Douglas, and be- 
lieve me, 

“ Faithfully yours, 

“ Alex Yandell.” 

The interview which followed with the col- 
onel, by appointment, in New York, need not 
be set forth in detail ; it was but a repetition 
of the main facts of this history, the cogent 


' Twixt Love and Law. 163 

reasons which emphasized their hopelessness, 
and the impossibility of escape by the con- 
ventional gateway of divorce ; no new develop- 
ments, and nothing changed ; nothing in fact 
gained except the renewed confidence of the 
rather conservative colonel, who regretted 
without wholly understanding the wretched, 
entanglement, with all its collateral unhap- 
piness; 

The day for sailing came. Yandell and 
Roy were early on board the steamer. The 
day was a rather gray one, a subdued October 
morning, when soft clouds hung low over the 
distant sky, lifting here and there into a deli- 
cate mass of pearly fleece, through which the 
sun made a perceptible effort to show its face 
— a tender, refined day, whose softened tints 
seemed like the delicate shading of a sensitive 
woman’s sympathy. 

Yandell stood by the railing of the steam- 
er’s deck, with his son at his side, not a per- 
son present to see him off ; he had avoided 
the possibility by maintaining silence concern- 
ing his intentions. They were watching the 
last preparations of the ship’s officials in a 


164 'Twixt Love and Laiv. 

rather inconsequential way, turning now and 
then to look at the new arrivals, or to witness 
the leave-taking from some happy group, 
whose friends were demonstrative enough to 
attract strangers’ notice amid the genera) bus- 
tle and confusion. 

Roy had by some subtle divination found 
out that his father would prefer not to talk, 
and he forebore disturbing him with .ques- 
tions. 

Not more than twenty minutes remained 
before the gang-plank would be pulled in, 
when a closed carriage rolled up and a gentle- 
man and lady alighted quickly — the colonel 
and Margaret. 

Yandell saw them, with a start which was 
impossible of analysis, so conflicting were its 
inspirations, pain and delight commingling. 
He started forward. 

Roy, whose eyes had followed his father’s, 
and whose quick young sense had taken in 
the violent surprise caused by the new- 
comers, did not move or attempt to follow. 
He would not presume to do so unljss Invited 
by his father, and for the time Yandell had 


' Twixt Love and Latv. 165 

forgotten him and everything except the one 
potent, overwhelming fact that Margaret was 
coming toward him — that she had defied cus- 
tom, conventionality, everything, to bid him 
farewell — or to cast her own lot with his ! 

Could it be ? No ! If it were, would he 
accept the sacrifice ? But there she was, hold- 
ing out her hand to him. 

She was clothed in black, plainly as a nun 
with a little black bonnet, from which her face 
looked out with a kind of white resignation 
upon nearer view. She was slightly nervous, 
and yet reserved — full of characteristic, rest 
less passion, but so controlled and steadied 
by the effort of her will as to be entirely 
hidden from one who did not sound the very 
deeps of her wonderfully expressive eyes. 

The colonel said hurriedly, in a low voice : 
“ You better have this farewell out alone by 
yourselves. There is just time enough for a 
five minutes’ good-bye. You are both too well 
known to society reporters for any leave-takings 
here. Go to your state-room, Yandell.” 

Obeying, Yandell offered his arm to Marga- 
ret and qSVckly led her away, the colonel fob 


1 66 'Twixt Love and Law. 

lowing as a matter of course. But at the state- 
room door, he paused. 

“ Wasn’t that your boy with you? I’ll find 
him, and tell him that we are friends. I’ll 
bring him here so that Margaret may bid him 
good-bye when she comes to the saloon. Re- 
member your promise, little woman — every- 
thing quiet ! No scenes at the last moment ! ” 

“ I’ll remember, uncle,” replied Margaret. 

Yandell closed the door, and they were 
alone. 

Neither spoke. They simply stood like two 
starved creatures, devouring each other with 
their eyes — drinking in immortal draughts of 
remembrance. Then Yandell took Margaret’s 
hand, pulled the glove from it gently, and 
raised it to his lips, holding it there, ,with 
bowed head. When he looked at her again, 
the great warm tears stood in her eyes. 

“ Good-bye,” he said, hoarsely. 

“Good-bye,” she breathed, in reply, with 
quivering lips. 

“ God keep you.” 

“ And you.” 

“Just once, Margaret.” 


' Tivixt Love and Law. 167 

Yandell put his arm about her, and held 
her with the passion of sorrow; no less than 
love, to his heart. He kissed her forehead, 
her eyelids, her cheeks, her lips. 

“ It would have been too much, Margaret ; 
mortals could not have borne such perfect- 
ness,’’ he whispered, as he put her out of his 
arms. 

When they stepped into the saloon, the 
colonel and Roy were there. 

“ Five minutes more in which to get off this 
boat. Here, Margaret, is Yandell’s boy— the 
little fellow who just escaped the old Tyrant 
himself. He has been telling me about it, and 
I have been telling him what good friends we 
all are.” 

Margaret took the lad’s hand. 

“ Then this is Roy,” she said, with a deeply 
sweet smile, which reminded him of a pictured 
face. 

“Papa’s own boy;” said Yandell, with an 
answering smile. 

“ Come, come ; we must be going or we shall 
be carried off,” said the colonel. “ Good-bye, 
Yandell ; hon voyage! Good-bye, Roy ; I wish 


i68( 'Twixt Love and Law. 

\ 

I had a nice young fellow like you to take me 
off to Europe.” 

“ Come with us, sir.” 

“ I wish I could.” 

“ Good-bye.” 

“ Good-bye.” 

Margaret leaned over impulsively and kissed 
the lad. 

“ I feel as if I had always known you, be- 
cause I have heard papa say so much about 
you,” she said. 

Five minutes later the great steamer swung 
off from her wharf amid a grand shout from the 
merry crowds on shore, and the waving of the 
gay little handkerchiefs of the pleasure-seekers 
on board 

Inside their carriage, with drawn curtains, 
Margaret sat with clenched hands, an occa- 
sional moan of despair escaping her through 
rebellious lips, until the colonel drew her head 
to his shoulder, so tenderly that the fountains 
of pent-up grief gave way in a flood of grateful 
tears. 


CHAPTER IX. 


What is left a woman like Margaret when 
love is no longer hope, faith, or inspiration ? 

Religious women find spiritual consolations ; 
the philanthropic will often turn success- 
fully to humanitarian work; calm natures 
generally forget — these are the average wom- 
en who marry other men ; violent ones 
sometimes rudely sever the link of life. But 
Margaret belonged to neither class. She was 
reverent, but not deeply religious ; she was 
enthusiastically generous, but her earlier dab- 
bling in philanthropies had proven to all intents 
and purposes that she could not get satisfac- 
tion out of immediate, personal contact with 
suffering, even for the purpose of relieving it ; 
she gave freely of her purse, but shrank from 
giving herself. She was too passionately tena- 
cious in her affections to hope for the blessed 
oblivion of forgetfulness; the thought of marry- 
169 


I/O ' Twixt Love ajid Law. 

ing any man except Yandell would have been 
criminal to her ; and she was too courageous 
to think of escaping her sorrow by ending her 
own life. 

Of all women she seemed the most unfort- 
unate, for there was absolutely nothing before 
her but unrelieved endurance. She could not 
even reason out a routine of life which should 
occupy all her time. 

Sometimes it occurred to her that she might 
go mad, and thus forget ; but there was little 
probability of that, since no relative, near or 
remote, had ever suffered from mental aber- 
ration, and her suffering of the last few months 
had resulted in no greater physical deteriora- 
tion than a rather pale, wan face, and hollow, 
pathetic eyes with haunting shadows around 
them. 

It was plain that she might lose her beauty 
and power of attraction, which were her only 
consolations per se in the life that was left to 
her — the life of social triumph and friendship, 
without forgetting or lessening material an- 
guish. 

It would be impossible to analyze the com- 


' Twixt Love and Law. lyi 

plex emotions which alternately swayed Mar- 
garet Blaine during these first weeks of loss ; 
their subtle shadings were as elusive and 
impossible of description as the peep of an 
unnamed sunset color through a vivid horizon. 
While one looked it faded, never to return, or, 
remaining fixed for any length of time, baffled 
by the inscrutable quality of its own indi- 
viduality. There are women like Margaret, 
but they are not typical. I have known two 
others, creatures of passionate impulses. One 
of this trio I have seen happily married to a 
noble man, and as an honored wife I have 
seen her queen over a domestic and social 
circle, the first in the land — the ideal 
woman and wife, the devoted mother, the 
steadfast friend, broad in her charities, liberal 
in her opinions, modest in her personality, 
giving and receiving with divine spontaneity. 
The other I have seen like a gem torn from its 
setting, a pearl cast under the trampling feet 
of swine — crushed, ruined, forsaken, outcast ! 
a thing over which gods and men might 
mourn ; and I have before me the emotional 
prototype of each, swaying helpless in the 


172 'Twixt Love and Law, 

orbit of her own despair, and the end uncer- 
tain as the possible revolutions of fate ! 

At Glenmere the castle was closed for the 
season ; and the colonel, with Mrs. Douglas 
and Margaret, had come up to their town 
house for the winter. But nothing seemed 
changed with the passionate sufferer as time 
went on. She maintained, however, a kind of 
desperate courage and resignation in the face 
of the world in which she was a figure, with- 
out pretending to herself that her misery had 
or could lighten in the least. 

The family were gathered in the breakfast- 
room, no one present but themselves, being 
without guests at the time. The season was 
December, the day Thursday. Mrs. Douglas 
was saying something wholly unimportant 
about the coming season’s social promise, the 
colonel was sipping his coffee, Margaret was 
listlessly scanning the morning paper. 

She had begun at the back page, and after 
quoting some commercial notes of interest 
to the colonel, mentioned a western blizzard, 
the weather probabilities, the death of a very 
old Shakespearean scholar, whose days had 


'Twixt Love and Law. 173 

been covered with honors, and a half-dozen 
other minor items of possible interest. In 
turning the paper she came naturally to the 
first page. In exaggerated type were these 
headlines : 

“ Horrible Railroad Accident ! — Forty 
Persons Killed and Wounded ! — Full Par- 
ticulars of the Fatality ! — List of the Dead 
and Dying.” 

She uttered a little shocked, involuntary ex- 
clamation. The colonel and Mrs. Douglas 
both looked up in inquiry. 

“ Another wretched accident on a railroad 
between this city and the West,” Margaret 
said, in explanation. “ It seems as if these 
horrors increase in numbers. I must read the 
list of the dead and injured to be sure that no 
friend of ours is among them. ” 

She read aloud a half-dozen unknown 
names, then looked up, saying : 

“ There seem to be so many needless 
forms of suffering. One must needs be 
more than a philosopher to understand why 
certain people should become victims of such 


174 'Twixt Love and Law, 

a miserable, violent end — as this, for ex- 
ample.” 

“ The ways of Providence are past finding 
out, but there must be some good purpose in 
it all, else it would not be,” said Mrs. Doug- 
las. 

“ I wish that I could see it that way,” re- 
plied Margaret, with a note of weary scepti- 
cism in her voice. “ I know that it is the 
popular view, the one to which youth is 
generally educated, without much regard for 
the reason of things ; but I cannot see it.” 

“ We are compelled to admit what is.” 

“ Yes, that ; but not the reasons, when there 
seems to be no reason whatever in the reasons 
given.” 

“ If mortals were permitted to interpret the 
divine plan of human life, the least among us 
might become the peers of gods. I am afraid, 
Margaret, that what we need is more faith 
and less disposition to rebel against the de- 
crees of the higher wisdom.” 

“ But surely,” persisted the girl, “ you do 
not pretend that faith makes the criminal, 
negligence or carelessness of those who are 


'Twixt Love and Laiv. 175 

responsible for such an accident as this a 
virtue for which we must needs praise heaven. 
For my part, I should think that Divinity 
would weep at such a sight as this,” shud 
deringly, “ of a mother and her babe slowly 
roasting to death beneath crushed timbers 
from which no human hand could extricate 
them — or this, of a poor little fellow — Oh, 
God ! ” 

A wild shriek of absolute horror and 
anguish burst from Margaret’s lips, and the 
paper fluttered to the floor from her nerveless 
grasp. 

The colonel and Mrs. Douglas both sprang 
to their feet in dismay. 

“ What is it ? Who is it, Margaret ? 
Speak. Here, drink this,” holding a glass of 
water to her lips, as she swayed in her chair. 

She swallowed a few drops of the water, 
which seemed to burn her like a fiery liquid, 
then thrust it away. 

“ I am all-right ! ” she gasped, clutching 
at the neck of her dress, as if to free her 
throat from a choking hand. “ Read ! read ! 
His — they — all — dead ! ” 


1/6 'Twixt Love and Laiu. 

The colonel picked up the newspaper and 
read, changing color visibly. 

Stripped of verbiage, what he read was : 
“ Dead, Bertha Yandell, aged seven ; Millie 
Yandell, aged ten. Dying, Edgar Yandell, 
aged twelve; and severely injured so that re- 
covery is extremely doubtful, Mrs. Alex Yan- 
dell.’’ 

All, except Roy. 

In the early days of her unhappiness Mar- 
garet had pictured the possible taking off by 
the natural course of disease of the woman 
who stood between herself and love ; and the 
guilty recollection came back to her now like 
a mocking, pitiless fiend. She felt a cruel 
voice at her ear hissing — “ Murderess ! ” 

“ Pity me ! ” she cried, in wild-eyed despair. 

“ No pity for you ! you wanted her dead,” 
said the voice. 

Like a convicted wretch she crouched be- 
neath the curdling horror of this accusation. 

“ When she is dead, he will be free.” 

Where was the exultation in the thought 1 
Why did not the frozen despair in her veins 
turn into the wine of rejoicing? 


'Twixt Love and Law. 177 

“ You can marry him then ! ” 

“ Spare me ! spare me ! ” 

“ That is what you wanted — what you have 
prayed for ! ” fiendishly whispered the voice. 

Margaret crouched away. 

“ You wanted her to die— the devil knew 
it ; this is the devil’s work ! He is in league 
with women like yourself.” 

“ Women like myself ! What — am — I — 

like .? ” . 

“See the picture — what you prayed for! 
You wanted her dead — dead ! ” 

“ I did not ! I did not want her dead I ” 

She had risen with palms pressed to her 
bursting head, with panting lips and straining 
eyes. 

“You wanted him — free I free!” pursued 
the haunting voice ; “ you know that you 
did.” 

“But I did'not want her dead — I did not 
want her — dead ! ” 

“ A fine distinction — an infinitesimal dis- 
tinction,” said the mocking voice. 

“ Help me ! help me ! ” 

“ The devil helped you — he was your 


2 


1/8 'Twixt Love and Law. 

friend ! You didn’t believe in God’s mercy. 
Too late, too late ! ” 

Margaret uttered a piercing shriek, which 
moaned into weird, bodiless silence, like the 
last wail of a lost soul. 

“ Father ! help, help ! keep me from becom- 
ing — a murderess.” 

Mother Hetty put a pair of forcible but 
tender arms around the suffering, pantherish 
creature, and stopped her in her mad pacing 
up and down the room. 

“ It is natural that this should be horrible 
to you, my dear girl ; but you are certainly 
not to blame. It is worse than morbid to so 
accuse yourself.” 

“ But why should she die — why ? ” de- 
manded Margaret, wildly. 

“ Because it is God’s time, which neither 
you nor I may question,” said Mrs. Douglas, 
solemnly. 

“ Don’t say that to me ! — don’t tell me that 
this is God’s work ! It is the devil’s ! — and I 
was his accomplice, or he mine ! Yes, he was 
mine ; I had more to gain — I had all to gain — 
he, nothing but this miserable, pitiful soul. 


' Twixt Love and Law. 179 

which one would think that even a devil 
would scorn ! ” 

“ Margaret, you shock me,” said Mrs. 
Douglas, tearfully. 

“ I must, I must ! There is nothing on 
earth more shocking than a woman who 
wanted another woman dead to get her hus- 
band from her ! ” 

Margaret burst from Mrs. Douglas* encir- 
cling arm and resumed her fierce pacing to 
and fro. 

“ For heaven’s sake, Margaret ! ” cried the 
colonel, “what has this frightful catastrophe 
to do with you? One would suppose you 
had been the deliberate cause of a misplaced 
switch, to hear you go on.” 

“ It is just as bad ! — ^just as bad ! I used 
to think that she might die ! ” 

“ But'that did not kill her,” said the colonel, 
almost harshly. 

“ But it was in my thought ! — and now she 
is dead — dead ! ” 

“This account does not say so; it says she 
is injured, but not dead.” 

“ But she will die ; I know she will.” 


i8o 'Twixt Love arid Law, 

“ You don’t know anything of the kind ; 
such reports are always exaggerated more or 
less. It is the children who are dead, and 
you certainly did not wish them any such 
fate.” 

“No! no! no! God knows I never 
thought of them dead,” said Margaret, in a 
voice of terrible anguish, covering her face 
with trembling hands to shut out the mental 
sight. 

“ Then I do not see but you are distressing 
yourself unreasonably. Be calm, and I will 
immediately telegraph for all particulars. 
Matters may be much better than you think.” 

Margaret shook her head, and moaned in 
heart-broken doubt, then suddenly caught at 
the straw of hope. She faced the colonel 
with desperate beseeching. 

“ Don’t deceive me. Uncle Conant ; prom- 
ise me you will not try to spare me by doing 
that ! If she is dead you will tell me the 
truth — the whole ghastly truth ! every word 
of it. You will not keep back a word of the 
damning evidence against me — I must know ! 
If I have killed her with my thought — tell me 


' Twixt Love and Law, i8i 

so ! Oh, Uncle ! pity me, but tell me, and 
let me expiate the sin with my own miser- 
able, worthless life ! ” 

‘‘ I will promise to tell you the whole truth, 
Margaret,” the colonel replied; “nothing 
would be gained by keeping it from you.” 

“ No, nothing would be gained,” she re- 
peated, with gruesome sagacity. “ I should 
know.” 

Colonel Conant put the unhappy girl’s 
clinging, feverish hands from his shoulder, 
and left the room. 

“Now, dear,” said Mrs. Douglas, with a 
little motherly air, “you must try to compose 
yourself until Uncle Conant returns. It will 
be several hours before an answer comes to 
his telegram ; and meanwhile you must go to 
your chamber and quiet your nerves. If you 
would like, I will go with you.” 

“ How good you are to me ! ” said Margaret, 
with one of her characteristic melting ca- 
resses. “ And you will love me just the same, 
no matter what comes — even if she should — 
die.” 

Her voice had sunk to a pleading, awe- 


1 82 'Twixt Love and Law, 

stricken whisper, and her face was full of the 
pathos of a bruised lily. 

“ Yes, dear, I shall love you just the same. 
Come.” 

The colonel returned late in the afternoon, 
having several telegrams wdth him, the sum 
and substance of which was, in brief, that 
Yandell’s wife was still living, and might 
recover with careful nursing. The children, 
however, were all dead, the boy Edgar hav- 
ing succumbed to his injuries, after lingering 
several hours. The telegrams stated that the 
great need in the little town to which the 
sufferers had been taken was for skilful nurs- 
ing, the railroad officials having so far been 
unable to secure sufficient numbers of trained 
nurses, who could be relied upon to bear up 
under the trying horrors of their duties. 

Margaret had risen when the colonel entered 
the room, her excitement being too dense for 
sitting quietly through the reading of the tele- 
grams. She stood with clasped hands and a 
strained effort at self-control, until he had 
concluded; then turning to Mrs. Douglas with 
passionate breath, she broke into pleading. 


' Twixt Love and Law. 183 

“You do believe God will forgive me, that 
He will be merciful to me! — you do believe 
it, Mother Hetty. Oh I say you do believe it 
— that you believe she will live I ” 

“ I hope so, dear.” 

“ But you do not believe it I ” faltered Mar- 
garet, pitiably. 

“ I cannot know ; but, yes — I do believe it.” 

Margaret burst into hysterical sobbing 
which was like the breaking up of summer 
clouds when refreshing showers begin to fall. 

“You are so good to me. Mother Hetty! 
You have always been so good to me,” she 
whispered, through the blurring tears which 
fell faster and faster, until her overflowing 
misery seemed relieved. 

In the meantime neither the colonel nor 
Mrs. Douglas disturbed this mood. These 
poor, perplexed souls waited in a species of 
helpless conjecture about what she would do 
next. The events of the last few months had 
worn upon them both, and Margaret’s pas- 
sionate contradictions, her alternate swaying 
from one extreme to the other — from virtue to 
indulgence, had been a sore trial to their 


' Tzvixt Love and Lazv. 


184 

straightforward, rather rigid creeds. But if 
they could not understand the excitable and 
untamed creature, and enter fully into the un- 
usual* complications of her peculiar organiza- 
tion, they could and did love her fondly, and 
for this reason sought in a whole-hearted way 
to save and spare her at the same time. 

Before this time they had both agreed that 
nothing she might say or do could ever sur- 
prise them again ; nevertheless it was a mat- 
ter of the greatest surprise, the very last sug- 
gestion of the unexpected, when Margaret 
announced through glistening tears, that she 
must secure the services of a nurse from the 
training school, who would be ready to start 
westward with her that very night. 

Mother Hetty was thrown away off her 
natural complacent bias and fairly leaped to 
her feet in consternation, gasping out her sur- 
prise in a rather inarticulate way, while the 
colonel gave vent to the sharp, involuntary 
expletive — 

“ Quixotic nonsense ! ” 

But Margaret was too much in earnest to be 
offended, or even nonplussed. 


' Twixt Love and Law. 185 

“ It is all the hope that is left me, Uncle 
Conant,” she said, with the intense conviction 
of one whose position was invincible. “ It is 
my one hope of salvation. Her life must be 
saved ! ” 

“ And do you doubt that her own friends 
will do all, and more for her than you could 
hope to do } ” 

“ They will do all they can,” Margaret 
acquiesced, “ but they could not save her ! — 
that is my work. It is heaven’s chance to 
redeem my soul from a damning sin ! Don’t 
try to influence me against it ; don’t, I beseech 
you — it would not avail, and it makes it all 
the harder for me. My place is there, and I 
must go, though every mile of the way were 
blocked with terrors and remonstrance. I 
must ! — don’t you see that I must ? ” 

“ No, I do not see it,” said the colonel, 
very decidedly. “ It looks to me like a fool’s 
errand. You haven’t the nerve and com- 
posure for that sort of thing, if there were no 
other reasons to be urged against it, which 
there are — a dozen.” 

But Margaret was determined, and neither 
objections nor prayers availed to change her 


1 86 * Twixt Love and Law, 

mind. The colonel, groaning inwardly at 
the vagaries and freaks which made this 
young woman seem the most incomprehensi- 
ble of all her sex, prepared to accompany her 
when he found that her purpose was unalter- 
able. 

But no religious devotee on his way to visit 
the shrine of a saint was ever dominated by 
a holier enthusiasm than possessed this beau- 
tiful pilgrim of passion on her way to the bed- 
side of her suffering rival. No martyr ever 
shed his blood more freely than Margaret 
would have given her own heart’s blood to 
nourish the life-spark in the breast of the 
woman who separated her from love. 

The unfaltering courage with which this 
frail thing of earth put aside her own person- 
ality day by day, during the long, dreary weeks 
in which she hung over the bed of Gerta Yan- 
dell, must have washed every stain from the 
tablet of her soul, leaving it pure as an angel’s 
confessional ; and when consciousness came 
back to the injured woman, and she asked in 
her weak perplexity — “ Who are you ? ” Mar- 
garet replied — 

“ One to whom God has been good. ’ 


CHAPTER X. 


When Gerta Yandell was out of danger 
Margaret slipped away as unexpectedly as 
she had come, without disclosing her name or 
secret ; and the sick woman whom she had 
followed through the very valley of the shadow 
of death was left to suppose her a profes- 
sional nurse. To be sure, she wondered over 
Margaret’s beauty and refined, high-bred 
carriage somewhat , but it did not occur to 
her to doubt that the white cap and apron which 
she wore in the sick-room were enforced 
badges of her servitude, and she regarded 
Margaret in this connection as one of the oc- 
casional persons to be found among the lower 
classes who really seem superior to their 
station. 

By a strange coincidence Yandell arrived 
the very day after Margaret left. His former 
determination not to see his wife again had 


i88 


'Twixt Love and Lazv. 


yielded to the horror of the wretched bereave- 
ment which she had suffered, and to pity for 
her personal injuries. He felt that it w^ould 
be little less than brutal to ignore her claims 
upon his sympathy at such a time, and more- 
over, the unfortunate man was deeply moved 
by the horrible fate of his children. 

Roy too, with the impetuous warmth of a 
loyal young heart, had begged to go to his 
mother. 

But this return to his wife meant nothing 
hopeful to Yandell. He did not seek to de- 
ceive himself into believing that their common 
loss would bring them any nearer together. 
His coming was the natural impulse of a ten- 
der and generous nature, and in taking the 
step he could not foresee what the end would 
be, nor even how he would be able to comfort 
the miserable woman ; indeed, it may as well 
be stated that his thoughts were like his 
hopes — chaotic ! It seemed the right thing to 
him to go to her, and for this reason he went. 

The convalescent however, evinced neither 
surprise nor pleasure at his coming. She 
was still in a nervous and overwrought state, 




'Tzvixt Love and Lazv. 189 

and was for the time inclined to grumble over 
the departure of Margaret, whose magnetic 
touch and patient tenderness and devotion 
had proven especially grateful to her ; and the 
first two days following Yandell’s return were 
spent in vain efforts to trace the nurse Mari- 
ana, and bribe her into returning to her post. 
All efforts proving unavailing, however. Yam. 
dell gave himself up to the work of anticipat 
ing and fulfilling the querulous woman’s 
wants, as far as possible. He became almost 
loverlike in his solicitousness and care for 
her comfort; and with the most exquisite del- 
icacy forebore to recall the past in any form 
which might annoy or distress her. Once or 
twice she mentioned their dead children, but 
with such horror and shuddering that Yandell 
soon came to regard all allusion to them as 
unwise ; and then, with masterly self-control on 
the one side, and characteristic selfishness on 
the other, the broken threads of domestic life 
were reunited between this deplorably mated 
couple^ and the wear and tear upon soul and 
body was begun again, with harrowing re- 


190 ' Twixt Love aiid Lazv. 

membrances for a background, and blank 
hopelessness ahead. 

The journey eastward to their Newport 
house, which was undertaken early in May, by 
which time Mrs. Yandell had entirely recovered 
from her injuries, except for a rather stiff 
shoulder and arm, was as dreary an affair as one 
could imagine. Going home meant so little 
to any one of this melancholy trio, for even 
Roy felt the general depression ; and as if to 
add to the gloom of unhappiness, Mrs. Yandell 
travelled in a state of nervous fear and appre- 
hension which kept everybody about her on 
the rack of possibility. 

The trip was, however, accomplished with- 
out accident or incident of importance, ex- 
cept for a stop of several days at New York, 
where the bereaved woman was put into the 
mourning which circumstances demanded ; 
her strictly conventional ideas of what was 
due to her position as one of the elect being 
altogether opposed to appearing at church or 
in her carriage in western made gowns and 
bonnets. 

But once at home under the uneventful 


' Twixt Love ajid Lazv. 19 1 

routine of life which the period of mourning 
entailed, the miseries of uncongeniality 
seemed more poignant than ever. Yandell 
nevertheless resolutely set himself to the task 
of teaching his son, and each day put in some 
good work on a painting, the subject of which 
had been furnished by a family tradition 
handed down from colonial days. The tradi- 
tion was that of a brave young English girl 
who followed her lover across the seas to be- 
come his bride, at the sacrifice of friends and 
fortune. 

The painting, which was a large one, repre- 
sented the meeting of these lovers, and their 
simple wedding on the barren New England 
shores. Yandell had begun the work long 
before, but had made no effort to complete it 
until now ; and although he painted rapidly, 
it was late in the summer before the work was 
finished. There was much detail, which he 
wrought out assiduously and with great nicety, 
neglecting nothing that would add to artistic 
excellence or the historical faithfulness of the 
earlier colonial surroundings. 

But apart from the hours daily given to his 


192 'Twixt Love and Law. 

son and to this work of his genius, Yandell 
put his time entirely at his wife’s disposal. 
He appeared at church with her regularly on 
Sundays ; rode with her every week-day ; de- 
voted his evenings to her almost without excep- 
tion ; and listened to dreary monologues about 
one commonplace thing and another, with a 
forced air of interest for long hours together. 
He tried with energy to enter into the spirit 
of the gossip which she got second-hand from 
her servants ; and very generally submitted 
his neck to the galling yoke of the most sub- 
servient matrimonial slavery, all the time 
under the belief that he could choose no 
better part for himself, since it was his own 
mistakes which had led to this ; nevertheless, 
to a third person, there was something almost 
pitiful in this sight of a strong man yielding 
his entire individuality as a sacrifice to the 
negative contentment of a weak, selfish, and 
thoroughly unappreciative woman. 

But YandelFs horizon of hope had narrowed 
down to his son’s future and to his own ability 
to continue in his present life with the dignity 
and courage of a man. Margaret Blaine he 


' Twixt Love and Law. 193 

believed to be like one’s holy dead, buried 
within the sepulchre of memory, never to be 
resurrected this side of eternity. Existence 
to him meant endurance, and endurance 
demanded work. 

Neither his wife nor son had seen Yandell’s 
picture in process of painting, and when it was 
completed he invited them both to view the 
finished work. Roy had been filled with excite- 
ment over his father’s labors, and had looked 
forward to this hour with eager anticipation ; 
even Mrs. Yandell had felt some curiosity, 
although she could not understand concen- 
trated devotion to any art, unless one needed 
to earn one’s bread that way. Nevertheless, 
when the hour came for unveiling the picture, 
she exhibited more interest than had been her 
wont to show in what engaged her husband’s 
finer faculties. 

Yandell had arranged his easel with scrupu- 
lous regard for a good light, carefully as if he 
were exhibiting to the art critics who could 
make or unmake his reputation; and he had 
added a few fine touches to his studio in the 
way of flowers, out of a certain instinctive 

13 


194 ' Twixt Love and Law. 

delicacy of compliment to the occasion which 
brought his wife and son there, such poetic 
touches being native to him. Then he went 
himself to fetch them. Taking Mrs. Yandell 
by the hand, he led her into position to get a 
perfect view of the painting, and awaited her 
comments with an assumed air of expectancy 
that her remarks would prove both profound 
and important — an air which he was learning 
to use as the one most gratifying to her vain 
and shallow nature ; the very last and most 
pathetic of all his resorts to please her, and 
secure to himself the negative happiness of 
respite from constant bickering. 

He expected some such commonplace as — 
“ That’s very nice,” or “ How beautiful ! ” or 
some other of the same category, since she 
had come with him in a very good humor in- 
deed ; but he was utterly dumbfounded at her 
short, sharp, involuntary exclamation, which 
was almost dramatic in force and surprise. 

“ Why, you have painted that nurse Mar- 
iana ! ” 

Yandell looked at her blankly. 

“ I don’t know what you mean,” he said. 


' Twixt Love and Law, 


195 


“ I never saw the nurse Mariana, and how 
could I have painted her ? The resemblance 
is purely accidental.” 

“ It is the most remarkable of accidents,” 
said his wife, rather hotly. 

“ So it seems,” replied Yandell, annoyed 
in spite of himself at his wife’s evident 
pique. 

Roy, who was too absorbed in contemplation 
of the picture to realize with his usual 
boyish intuition that any remark from him 
would prove unfortunate, burst out in a species 
of rapturous discovery, 

“ I know who it is ! She is the beautiful 
lady that came to the steamer with the old 
gentleman.” 

Yandell uttered an exclamation under his 
breath, and took a step nearer to his own work ; 
when he saw for the first time, what both his 
wife and son had discovered at a glance, that 
in the young English bride he had painted a 
perfect likeness of Margaret Blaine. The dis- 
covery staggered him, and he stood in a dazed 
and rather helpless way, staring at this remark- 
able production of his own hands. 


196 'Twixt Love and Law. 

What startled him was the evidence that 
Margaret had become so much a part of his 
immortal being that he reflected her naturally 
and unconsciously as his ideal ; that she grew 
out of his personality as a part of its genius ; 
that she was the fruit and flower on the stem 
of life, springing into tangible form in whatever 
he undertook ; that she was the ever-present 
fragrant reality of the absolute and unconquer- 
able passion of love. 

But Mrs. Yandell, who had been watching 
the workings of his face with the jealous sense 
of an unsolved mystery, now spoke up with 
sharp emphasis : 

“ You seem to have discovered a likeness 
between this lady and some other, which sur- 
prises you.’^ 

“ Yes,” Yandell admitted, slowly and 
thoughtfully. “I have discovered — a — like- 
ness — which — surprises — me.” 

“ Since the resemblance is so perfect that I 
am compelled to recognize my nurse Mariana, 
perhaps you will not object to telling me when 
and where you had the ’honor of the lady’s 


'Twixt Love and Law. 197 

acquaintance,” continued his wife, with frigid 
sarcasm. 

“ Don’t talk nonsense, Gerta,” said Yandell ; 
almost roughly, “ that lady is not a nurse. 1 
have told you that you are mistaken in the re- 
semblance.” 

“ As you have painted her here, I see that 
she figures as a bride ; as I knew her she 
was a professional nurse. I should know 
that face anywhere — and I think I under- 
stand now why you did not find her when you 
tried so hard'"' 

“ Gerta, I certainly think that you are the 
most unalterably foolish creature that I have 
ever met in my life,” Yandell said, not 
attempting to conceal his impatience. “ You 
imagine all sorts of impossible things, without 
sense or reason. I tell you again, that any 
resemblance which you may detect between 
this woman in the painting and your former 
nurse is purely accidental.” 

“And I tell you that I should recognize 
that face and the peculiar poise of that head 
anywhere in the world,” persisted Mrs. Yan- 
dell, with irritating elaborateness. “ If you 


198 'Twixt Love and Law. 

have had an intrigue with this pretty under- 
ling, which you are ashamed to own up to, 
that is one thing ; but to attempt to argue me 
out of my senses is quite another. You must 
excuse me if I refuse to permit it. But you 
need never fear my being jealous of a servant. 
I know that gentlemen are sometimes given 
that way ; especially gentlemen who find 
living at home with their wives irksome.” 

“ Roy, leave the room.” 

Yandell spoke hoarsely, for he was pro- 
foundly wrought up by the combination of 
circumstances which was staring him in the 
face. 

Roy was pale and distressed. 

“ Come with me, father,” he pleaded. 

“ I will follow you soon,” Yandell replied, 
taking the boy gently but firmly by the shoul 
der, to lead him to the door. 

While this by-play with their son was going 
on, his wife stood idly toying with a silken 
scarf which hung over the back of a chair, 
a disagreeable, insolent smile upon her 
face. 

“Now, Gerta,” said Yandell, facing her 


'Twixt Love and Law. 199 

with a species of dogged determination, “ tell 
me more about this nurse, Mariana.” 

“ Oh, I have nothing to tell. You are the 
one to tell me more about her,” said Mrs. 
Yandell, shruggingly, settling the folds of her 
dead black gown with an air of maddening 
insinuation. “ You are the one evidently 
who knows her. To me she was nothing more 
than a very well trained nurse; to you she 
seems to have been the one being in the 
world whose form and features you have 
found worthy to be portrayed as the English 
heroine, your ancestor. But it was a strange 
coincidence that your — inamorata should have 
become your wife’s nurse.” 

Yandell colored deeply. 

I scorn your sneers, Gerta, concerning 
this lady, whose face I have unconsciously 
painted out of memory,” he said, bitterly, 
“ and I care even less for your implied insults 
to myself. I have borne this sort of thing so 
many years that it is losing its force through 
familiarity. But I should like to know more 
about the nurse Mariana, for your insistence 
upon the resemblance between the face which 


200 ^Twixt Love and Law, 

I have painted and the woman who nursed 
you back to life and health makes me believe 
that the original of my inspiration has proven 
herself the noblest and most unselfish of 
women.” 

Mrs. Yandell arched her brows odiously, 
while a gleam of savage, jealous rag© darted 
from her small eyes. 

“ You must think that this kind of sensa- 
tional rhapsody over a low-born creature, is 
interesting to me,” she said, with a sneer. 
“ If I do not interfere with your intrigues, one 
would suppose that I might at least be secure 
from hearing you gush over them.” 

“Gerta, are you a woman or a fiend, that 
you should wish to tantalize a man into mad- 
ness ? ” Yandell burst out in livid despera- 
tion. “If 'I had been guilty of every sin 
in the Decalogue, you could not have 
been more meanly suspicious of me. I tell 
you, once for all, that I have borne your sneers 
and taunts until patience has ceased to be a 
virtue ; and I swear I will bear them no 
longer ! From this hour you may go your 
way, and I’ll go mine.” 


^Twixt Love and Law. 2oi 

Mrs. Yandell burst into a low, rasping 
laugh. 

“You are original to the end, Alex,”, she 
said, ironically. “ Separating from me is 
something so new — going your own way is 
something so unusual.” 

Yandell had, however, turned his back upon 
her entirely; and with pale brow and com- 
pressed lips, stood before the work of his 
brush, gazing at the tender, passionate, trust- 
ful face of the girl bride whose lineaments 
were Margaret’s. 

For a moment Mrs. Yandell watched him 
balefully like a cat ; then, in a whirlwind of 
jealousy, she sprang forward, wordless, and 
slashed the face of the woman on the canvas, 
through and through, with a jewelled dagger 
snatched from her hair. 

Yandell sensed what she had done with a 
smothered cry of indignation, and seizing her 
by the wrist involuntarily, he flung himself 
between her and the picture. It was all the 
work of a moment, but in that moment a 
tragedy had been enacted, for Mrs. Yandell’s 
foot slipped on the polished floor, and she fell 


202 


^Twixt Love and Law, 


upon her side, pierced to the hilt by the 
jewelled toy with which she had ruined the 
pictured face of the woman who had so 
recently saved her life. 

“ Gerta ! Gerta ! ” cried Yandell, dropping 
on his knees to raise her, while Roy and a 
maid rushed to the spot, attracted by the wild 
shriek uttered by the injured w'oman when 
she fell. “ Gerta, Gerta, speak to me ! ’’ 

Yandell raised the senseless woman in his 
arms. The jewelled hilt of the murderous 
dagger was clutched in a deathlike and rigid 
grasp in her right hand, while its slender point 
still quivered in her bleeding side. 

The maid was wild with fright ; and Roy 
stood as if rooted to the spot with frozen hor- 
ror, until Yandell, overwhelmed by this latest 
link in the horrible chain of circumstances 
which bound him to the inquisitorial rack of 
fate, hoarsely bade him summon a doctor. 

The agony which Alex Yandell suffered 
during the next hour, turned his hair white as 
the snows which rest in frozen silence upon 
the inaccessible mountain places. It seemed 
to him as if the yawning gates of perdition 


' Twixt Love afid Law. 203 

had opened to swallow up the results of all his 
efforts to live at peace with God and his fel- 
low-creatures. He felt the scorching hands 
of fiends at his heart-strings, and heard their 
blood-red laughter in his singing ears, while 
he bent in anxious misery above the couch 
upon which his wife lay senseless — and dying, 
he believed. 

It was but a short time before a surgeon 
arrived ; and Yandell wept like a child when 
told that the wound need not necessarily 
prove fatal, although there was no denying 
that it was most serious. 

“ I don’t know why women always choose 
such infernal, unaccountable styles of orna- 
ments,” said the brusque old doctor ; 
“ snakes and scorpions and daggers and all 
the rest of the jewelled monstrosities. They’d 
stuff their poodles and stick ’em full of jewels 
to wear on their heads as they do birds, if 
they weren’t a size too big for it. As it is 
they wear ’em in their arms. Only last 
month, I was called to attend a woman who 
died from a wretched skin disease that had 
its source in a dog’s kisses. Ugh ! But 


204 'Twixt Love and Law. 

women never will learn sense about such 
things; I’ve attended ’em for years, and I 
know ’em. This ain’t the first one I’ve seen 
hurt this very way. She slipped and fell, I 
suppose, with that thing in her hand ? Of 
course ! evidence enough here to prove that ; 
but there wasn’t any such evidence in the 
other case, and they suspected the son of 
helping the thing along ! A pretty kettle of 
fish that was ! The poor fellow, besides losing 
his mother, had hard work to save his own 
life from the hangman’s noose. 

“I tell you the devil must get up these 
things, and the jewellers have a good deal 
to answer for in the combination. I advise 
you to burn that infernal thing, and to go 
through your wife’s jewels to see that there 
ain’t any more like it ! ” 

*' I pray that she may live to want her other 
jewels,” said Yandell, with a note of deep 
gloom, receiving the dagger, with its onyx hilt 
set in brilliants, from the doctor’s hand. 

“Of course you do,” he acquiesced, nod- 
ding, “ and we propose to save her if no 
complications set in. Keep up your courage 


'Twixt Love and Law. 205 

like a man ! I’ll send you a nurse who will 
pull her up if anybody can. She knows all 
about this kind of a wound, just what to do 
in an emergency. Damn it, man 1 you ain’t 
going to break down again, like a school- 
boy.” 

But Yandell was swallowing hard to keep 
back his rising emotion. He felt utterly 
broken to pieces, and unnerved. 

The old doctor eyed him keenly from under 
his bushy brows, then went to the table and 
wrote a prescription. 

“ Look here, you need a little bracing up 
yourself. Take one of these powders in a 
half of a wine glass of water before eating, for 
a couple of days.’*’ 

Then, softening visibly, and drawing his 
coat-sleeve hastily across his eyes, he said in 
a gentler tone, 

“ She’ll have good care, and there ain’t 
much cause to worry ; if there was, it wouldn’t 
do any good, man — so brace up.” 

Yandell wrung his hand for answer, and 
hastily left the room. 


CHAPTER XI. 


Margaret’s experiences at the bedside of 
Gerta Yandell, together with the circum- 
stances controlling her going there, had been 
of a kind to call forth the reserved strength of 
her nature ; and it was not long before she 
began to see the collateral duties and relations 
of Yandell’s life and her own as she had never 
been them before. 

Like some stately tropical tree, springing 
tall and strong above the rank and tangled 
undergrowth of noxious weeds and vines that 
cling about its roots, Margaret’s perception 
of the natural rights of a human soul to breath 
and air grew and towered out of the strang- 
ling, irritating, grovelling reach of the human 
hordes that swarm on mental lowlands as do 
poisonous insects in marshy places. 

Where she had blindly groped before, she 
walked with steady feet in the light of her 
206 


' Twixt Love and Law. 


207 


glowing cognition of infinite truth ; where, be- 
fore, her senses had swayed like the delicate 
flower of the frail columbine to every passing 
breath of hope and fear, her heart took cour 
age now, and dauntlessly challenged fate. 

She asked : “ What are you that I should 
bow my neck to your cruel and arbitrary rul- 
ings ? Who is this Mumbo-Jumbo of conven- 
tional superstition that I should yield him the 
arbitration of my immortal destiny, forgetting 
that I^ have been made in the image of my 
P'ather, with soul, senses, heart, and mind to 
learn of Him.” 

Thus it was that Margaret’s self unfolded 
day by day, until the chrysalis burst its cover- 
ing. and ripened wisdom _^oared on new-born 
wings to the lawful places of the soul. 

Meanwhile the weeks and months were 
passing; and Mother Hetty — good, honest, 
loving creature ! — believed that Margaret was 
finding the pathway to woman’s accepted mis- 
sion of patient endurance in the world. She 
never once suspected that her feet were set 
instead upon the royal road that leads the 
Pilgrim of Passion above the slough of de- 


2o8 'Twixt Love and Law. 

spond. All through the long summer days at 
Glenmere, while the colonel and Mrs. Douglas 
were believing that awesome remembrance of 

what might have been ” had proven Marga- 
ret’s saving grace, she was peering into a wider 
book of life, with clearer eyes, and learning, by 
the revealed light of love’s meaning, to wait 
the perfect time of love’s fulfilment. 

The colonel and Yandell exchanged occa- 
sional letters, and she therefore knew that he 
was with his wife. But the thought "Caused 
her no jealous pang nor passionate revolt. 
She had learned to look beyond the worldly 
conceit of the empty title “ wife,” for Siie had 
come to discern the underl5dng truth that 
marriage is impossible where love is not. One 
might better expect the glow-worm to mate 
with a star, than two antipodal natures to force 
themselves into the perfect union which alone 
is marriage. 

But Yandell’s eyes were still Blinded by the 
massed gloom of dark tradition, and beyond 
its dense hopelessness he could not see the 
sacred light which streamed from the windows 
of Love’s Temple, nor feel the beckoning 


' Twixt Love and Lazv. 209 

arms of the High Priestess who waited him at 
the altar there. 

The social life at Glenmere had never been 
more delightful than this season, and Mar- 
garet had led all gayeties as before. There 
had been more guests than usual, among them 
a distinguished scholar, and a wit, whose bon 
mots and brilliant sallies had added much to 
the enjoyments of the dinner-table and draw- 
ing-room. 

Then there had been two d^butantes^ whose 
fresh, exhilarating young pleasure in every- 
thing had served to renew youth and fire in 
the sluggish blood of their elders. 

October came, and passed, and with it the 
time for closing Glenmere. But summer tra- 
ditions still lingered in the air, while the red 
and gold of autumn ‘were imperceptibly turning 
into russet brown. A soft haze, delicious as 
summer^s perfect blue, and scarcely more like 
winter’s breath, invited willing feet to loiter 
still amid field and forest glories ; and when 
the first rustling leaves fluttered to earth with 
a pensive sighing like the whirr of passing 
angels’ wings, no one was ready to exchange 


14 


210 ' Twixt Love a?id Law. 

this subdued and unworldly beauty for the 
noise and dust and garish glare of the city. 

The colonel proposed remaining at the 
castle for the holidays, in which everybody 
enthusiastically acquiesced. 

‘‘ And we will have a regular old-fashioned 
Thanksgiving dinner, with turkey and plum 
pudding, and pumpkin pies,” the colonel said, 
“ on one condition — ” 

He paused in tantalizing scrutiny of the 
eager and expectant group. 

“ Just one condition,” he repeated, as if 
enjoying their suspense. 

“ And that is what. Colonel Conant ? Do tell 
us, for we are devoured by anxiety to know 
if we are equal to its fulfilment,” said pretty 
Madge Grant, dancing up to him with most 
bewitching entreaty. 

“ That every woman at Glenmere shall take 
a part in its cooking.” 

“ That will be jolly,” was declared all 
round. 

“ We shall see,” mine host replied. “ But 
it must be the traditional New England affair 
of years ago, and no modern French make- 


’ Twixt Love and Law. 2 1 1 

shift, concocted by that ingenious chef of 
mine. I shall take nothing less than the 
promise that every lady will make a loaf of 
bread, or concoct a pie, or bake a pound cake, 
while the turkey dressing and plum pudding 
must all be the work of your own hands. 
What do you say to that, young ladies 1 and 
do you still wish to remain ? ” 

“ Indeed we do,” they all cried in chorus. 

“ I am afraid that it will be a verification of 
the old adage that too many cooks spoil the 
broth,” one of the older ladies remarked. 

“ No, indeed it will not, mamma,” replied 
her enthusiastic daughter. “ Somebody must 
have a grandmother who will know all about 
it ; beside, we can, you know, take lessons of 
Miss Parloa,” at which naive remark every- 
body smiled. The colonel shook his head 
warningly. 

“ None of that ! It must all be done in the 
regular old-fashioned, rollicking New England 
way — just as it was done when there were no 
cooking teachers, and /adtes did not fear to 
roll up their sleeves and go right in for 
work,” 


212 


'Twixt Love and Law. 


“ But somebody will have to show us just 
a little, Colonel Conant,” Madge Grant 
announced, with very bright, earnest eyes. 

“No,” the colonel shook his head, “it 
must be quite intuitive.” 

“ An intuitive dinner ! That evidently 
means a feast fit for an ostrich. I believe it 
is they. Colonel, who are credited with the 
power to digest anything,” said Melvin teas- 
ingly, with a groan. 

“ Oh ! that is entirely too bad, Mr. Melvin. 
You deserve to go without your dinner for 
punishment,” said Bessie Foxcroft, reproach- 
fully. 

“ No, Bess, that would not be half so good 
as filling his plum pudding full of raisins with 
the stones in them, or putting the rind of the 
pumpkin into his pie,” promptly declared 
Madge. 

“ I’ll tell you a better punishment yet, 
young ladies,” said Ruddygore, the wit ; “ met- 
amorphose Mr. Melvin into the ‘ skeleton at 
the feast.’ ” A shout of merriment followed 
this sally, in which even its portly and rubi- 
cund victim w'as compelled to join. 


'Twixt Love and Law. 213 

“ Do not despair, girls, for I can help you 
out. I know the very loveliest old-school New 
England gentlewoman, who has very little 
money now, and she will gladly teach you 
everything about it ; and Uncle Conant need 
not know at all,” Margaret whispered, in 
confidence. 

“ And we can give them a big surprise. 
Won’t that be immensely jolly ? ” said Madge, 
with a girlish tremor of delight. 

“ What kind of mischief is brewing over 
there in that corner ? ” demanded the colonel, 
suspiciously, from under his eyebrows. 

Nothing,” demurely replied Bess, drop- 
ping him a little courtesy of an earlier 
period. 

Charming ! excellent ! Miss Bessie, all that 
you need to make you a perfect Priscilla is 
a homespun gown and a white neckerchief.” 

“ And you to be clad in doublet and hose, 
and boots of Cordovan leather, to become 
the ideal Miles Standish,” replied Bessie, in 
quick repartee to Ruddygore, who had likened 
her to the Puritan maiden. 


214 *Twixt Love and Law. 

“ If I might only be John Alden instead,” 
sighed he. 

“Nonsense,” responded Bessie, promptly, 
“you’re quite too old: John Alden is always 
described as a stripling, and I am sure I see 
‘ patches of snow in your russet beard.’ ” . 

“ Golden sunshine. Miss Bessie, caught by 
reflection from your twinkling eyes.” 

The retrousse of her nose was saucily 
accentuated by the little grimace which she 
made him. 

“ We might have an old-time husking 
among our Thanksgiving festivities, and a 
dance in the barn, with a native fiddler to 
furnish the music,” the colonel was saying, at 
which they all clapped their hands, and 
declared him the ideal host. 

“ Won’t it be too good sport for anything, 
Bess ? ” cried Madge. “ A great deal nicer 
than stiff balls and parties, where it is all 
etiquette and no fun.” 

“ And we will wear the regular gowns that 
they used to wear, and do everything that our 
ancestors did,” put in Bess. 

“ Every single thing,” repeated the colonel. 


'Twixt Love and Law, 215 

quite seriously, “even to kissing the girls 
when we find a red ear. Eh ? Melvin, how 
will that be for renewing one’s youth ? ” 
nudged the colonel. 

“ Red ears ! How ? What do you mean 
about the red ears ? ” innocently asked Bes- 
sie, who had never heard the tradition con- 
nected with finding a red ear among the corn. 

“ The red ears generally come by the old- 
fashioned boxing, which follows the kiss,” said 
Ruddygore, looking imperturbably droll. 

“ I know that you are guying me,” pouted 
Bess, a most piquant picture of dismay. 

“ Indeed I am not. Miss Bessie ; I was only 
wishing that it might fall to my good luck to 
be able to teach you the story of the red ear 
on the occasion of the husking.” 

“ You mean that I shall put myself in a 
position to have my ears boxed by you,” 
gasped Bessie. 

“ Just the contrary. I am hoping to suffer 
that delighful scourging at your hands insfead.” 

“ I shall have nothing whatever to do with 
you,” said Bessie, very positively, tossing her 


2 i 6 'Twixt Love ayid Law. 

jaunty head until its rich love-locks fell about 
her temples in a shower of gold. 

“ But you know you can’t help it, if I have 
a red ear,” pursued Ruddygore, purposely 
mystifying her. 

“ Can I not. Miss Blaine ? ” pleaded the 
pretty creature, rather dubiously. 

“Certainly you can, if you know how,” 
laughed Margaret, slipping her arm about the 
girl. “ Come with me and I will tell you a 
secret of a husking that I went to long ago, 
when I was near your age.’^ 

“ May I come too ? ” 

“Indeed you may, Madge,” replied Mar- 
garet, extending her disengaged arm to clasp 
the waist of the piquant little brunette. And 
off they went into the purple and orange 
gloom of the falling twilight, leaving the 
others to enjoy the crackle and warmth of the 
roaring wood fire in the great English hall. 

Margaret was an excellent recounter of 
reminiscences. There was a certain magnetic 
quality in all her stories, even her fairy tales, 
which she kept ready for stray children, and 
this escapade of her girlish days was just the 


' Twixt Love and Law, 217 

sort to hold the attention of these two half- 
wild young things, who were even yet linger- 
ing between regret for their dolls and delight 
over their first ball dresses ; and they clung 
to her with little girlish squeezes of delight, 
generously interposed with “ ohs ! ’’ and 
“ ahs ! ” as they sauntered along in the gloam- 
ing. But for concentrated interest in the 
moment, one of the three must have seen the 
figure of a man coming toward them through 
the purpling shadows of the glowing evening. 
As it was, he came quite upon their own 
approach before they sensed his presence. 

All looked up at the same instant, and Mar- 
garet felt a pair of deep, intense eyes sinking 
into her own, out of the glow and gloom ; and 
she saw through the shadows of the past and 
present that love had at last come into its 
own kingdom after a weary pilgrimage. 

When she reached out her bare, warm hand, 
to be taken into Yandell’s larger, stronger one, 
the clasp was like the touch of divine ecstasy ; 
and wordlessly from the fulness of their united 
souls came a grand “ Gloria Patria ! Amen ! ” 

Each knew that the supreme hour of life had 


2i8 'Twixt Love and Law. 

come — that love had triumphed. Not self- 
indulgently, but prayerfully; not in reckless 
defiance of conventional superstitions and cus- 
toms, but irresistibly compelled to the heights 
by upsoaring wings — holily, with hearts thril- 
ling to the grand music of the immortal anthem 
of perfect faith. 

But in this exalted crisis of her life, Mar- 
garet felt that there would be profanation in 
the gaze of people ; she must for a half-hour 
at least enjoy the delight and the wonder of 
her translation into this realm of perfect 
peace. Yandell understood her wish, which 
was equally his own, and as soon as politeness 
would permit, after the exchange of common- 
place greetings which his introduction to Madge 
and Bessie demanded, he said : 

“Can we not go back to the Castle with 
the young ladies ? I have so much to tell 
you, and the evening is so pleasant that we 
might walk for a half-hour before I meet the 
colonel and Mrs. Douglas.” 

“I fancy that the girls will consent,” Mar- 
garet replied, with one of her caressing 


' Twixt Love and Law. 219 

smiles, which seemed to embrace each of 
them within its tenderness. 

“ You do not need to go back, it will be all 
right for us to go alone,” said Bessie, quickly, 
desiring above everything to please Margaret. 

But Yandell, with his native courtesy toward 
all women, young and old, replied : “ We can 
take part of our walk in that way, by returning 
with you ; besides. Miss Blaine must have a 
wrap.” 

Margaret laughed a little guiltily. 

“ It was certainly very cardless of me to 
permit the girls to come out without their gar- 
ments,” she said. “ I am afraid that their 
mammas will not consider me a safe chaperon 
for an evening’s walk unless I am more 
guarded about their health.” 

With such inconsequential nothings they 
retraced their steps to the western entrance, 
where Bessie ran ahead, returning soon with 
a long, soft cape for Margaret. 

Alone together with the early stars, like the 
eyes of an approving heavenly host looking 
down upon their happiness, Yandell’s hand 


V ■ >; ; 


220 *Twixt Love and Law. 

closed over Margaret’s, and his voice breathed 
her name : 

“ Margaret — Margaret — dear heart.” 

She nestled close to him, so that their 
shoulders and arms blended into a perfect 
current of motion as they walked ; and in that 
delicious silence and poetry of movement, 
which is more ardently perfect than impas- 
sioned speech, time passed unheeded. 

“ Ought we to return to the castle ? ” he 
whispered, at length. 

“ I suppose so,” Margaret breathed, reluc- 
tantly. 

“ I was going to tell you why I came, but 
I do not think that I can talk to you to-night.” 

“I understand why you came,” Margaret 
replied, simply. “ I have expected you.” 

“ I fell it,” he returned, with a firmer pres- 
sure upon her hand. “ Sometimes you have 
seemed to call to me out of space like a dis- 
embodied soul. But I did not come until I 
knew that it was to stay ! We can never go 
back again to what was. I have come to 
claim you, Margaret, and hold you against the 
world ; you will not regret it.” 


' Twixt Love a7id Law. 


221 


She lifted her eyes to his proudly and con- 
fidently, and simply answered him : 

“ No.” 

“ There may be self-denials.” 

“ Impossible with you.” 

Again he pressed her hand until the fulness 
of his emotion permitted speech. 

“ I am not legally free,” he replied, with 
just a touch of bitterness. “ I may not ever 
be able to secure my freedom. Do not mis- 
understand me, because I hope to do it ; 
but if I do not, it will be the same, we can 
never part again.” 

She was looking straight into his heart 
through his eyes, trustfully, entirely yielding 
her life to his keeping, wishing with a 
generous woman’s abandon, that she had more 
to give. 

“ You are mine, Margaret ! ” He was almost 
challenging her. “ Mine — in spite of every- 
thing.” 

“Yes.” 

“ To have and to hold you in my heart un- 
til death do us part ; and afterward, by God’s 
will, as the soul of my immortality. 


222 


' Twixt Love and Law. 


“ Yes.” 

“ Never to turn back, never to regret the 
world if the world must be sacrificed — forever, 
Margaret ? ” 

“ Forever, Alex. ” 

“ God ! what have I done to deserve this 'i ” 

He lifted his pale face to heaven in the rap- 
ture of gratitude, taking a step away from her. 

She clasped her dropped hands, interlacing 
the fingers and pressing the palms together. 

“ Margaret,” he called her, “ Margaret, I 
wonder,” huskil}^ “ if you really understand, 
— do you, little girl ? — do you know what you 
have promised me ? ” 

He held her off from him by his gaze. 

“ Yes, Alex.” 

Her voice thrilled and rent him at the same 
moment. 

“ Think what it is to give yourself to me ! 
I might wrong you, Margaret ; I might — what 
nonsense I am talking to her !” 

“ Yes, it is nonsense, Alex,” Margaret re- 
plied, very simply. 

“ But the world will say that I have wronged 
another woman — it will call me a traitor and 


' Twixt Love and Law. 223 

a coward, and accuse me of being false, be- 
cause she was my wife. Margaret, do you 
realize that ? ” 

“ It will be all the same to me.” 

“ Margaret, love ! say that again.” 

His voice was bursting with the pain of 
pleasure in her loyalty, and the absolutism of 
the love which he had inspired in her. 

“ It will be all the same to me, Alex,” she 
repeated, in a sweet, clear voice. 

He drew a deep, long breath of intense feel- 
ing. 

“ Margaret ! Margaret ! Margaret ! I believe 
that you will slay me here and now with pure 
joy,” he said, with his eyes drinking in the 
exalted beauty of her face, as the light of the 
young crescent moon revealed it. 

She put out her hand, and looked at him 
almost reproachfully when he simply raised it 
to his lips. 

He understood her. 

“ Think about it to-night, Margaret, pray 
over — weigh it and me, and to-morrow — 
to-morrow, if you still say it, you shall come 


224 'Twixt Love and Law. 

to my heart,” he whispered, hoarsely, with 
masterly self-control. 

“ There will be no to-morrow for you, Alex,” 
she replied, with convincing eagerness. You 
came to me because your heart demanded me, 
and I go to you because mine must have you 
— that is all ! It is not a question of to-day or 
to-morrow, but of the everlasting truth of 
love.” 

She swayed him, she conquered. Open- 
ing his arms with intense, ardent invitation, he 
received her to his heart and held her there, 
showering warm kisses upon the white brow 
which lay so temptingly upon his breast. 

But she brushed these kisses away with a 
little piquant gesture of rejection, and laying a 
soft finger upon her lips, lifted her eyes to his. 


CHAPTER XII. 


The kiss that sealed the betrothal between 
Yandell and Margaret was as sacred to them 
as if both had been free and in the first flush 
of youth and passion — nay, more so, for it was 
the expression of the purified essence of suffer- 
ing turned into joy. 

I know that a generation which lifted its 
voice against a Lewes and a George Eliot may 
well be expected to condemn Yandell and 
Margaret Blaine ; but in my capacity of biog- 
rapher, I . am compelled to admit that the sig- 
nificance of the world’s censure or praise was 
almost lost upon these two perfected souls. 
Neither was love a mixed question of indul- 
gence with concealment to them but rather a 
straightforward challenge. 

They loved — and that fact seemed to lift 
them above the vulgar contagion of lust. 
They did not hasten to evade or break the 
15 225 


226 Tzuixt Love and Law. 

law, nor did they feel called upon to formu- 
late elaborate palliation for what might be re- 
garded by some persons as a half-way crime. 
To them love was the revealed philosophy of 
life, to be accepted in a spirit of reverence, 
and without fear. Had it been less I should 
doubtless have been called upon to chronicle 
immediate and sweeping defiance of the ac- 
cepted laws of conventional morality. As it 
was, his Jacob was ready to serve his full 
time before claiming his Kachel. 

The next day Yandell and Margaret met 
with the colonel and Mrs. Douglas in the 
library. They had thought it the better 
course to state their position at once and with- 
out reserve. Yandell’s return had carried its 
own significance to the colonel and his sister, 
and both had passed a rather sleepless night. 
They were, however, prepared to bow to the 
inevitable. 

“ You must admit,” Yandell was saying, 
“ that we have the right to take such advan- 
tage for happiness as the law allows. Divorce 
has become too common to attract attention ; 
and however a few persons may feel upon 


'Twixt Love and Law. 227 

the subject, that the larger part of the men 
and women of the land are agreed upon legal 
separation as better than hopeless union is 
proven by the law covering that point. Had 
my children lived I should have been com- 
pelled to consider them before myself , as it is, 
my only son is almost a man, and of an age 
where the consequences of such a step can have 
no influence upon his life. I believe that I 
have a right to act without considering him.” 

“ Without raising personal objections to 
what you propose,” the colonel replied,^ will 
not she — Mrs. Yandell — do all in her power 
to render your freedom impossible ?” 

“ I will be perfectly frank with you. Colonel ; 
I believe that she will. Nay, I am almost 
certain that every obstacle to be thought of 
will be thrown in my pathway. I have no 
reason to suppose that she will be either 
merciful or just to me. Indeed, urged on by 
her lawyer, who was a personal friend of her 
father’s, she will make a fight which will be 
both malicious and damaging.” 

The colonel looked thoughtful and dis- 


228 'Tivixt Love and Law. 

tressed, while Yandell continued, with deep, 
unalterable purpose. 

“ But I am determined to resist to the end. 
I have taken this step after considering it in 
every aspect, and I do not intend to yield my 
right to freedom — and Margaret.” 

He reached out and took one of her hands 
into his own, holding it with a species of 
moral defiance between his throbbing palms. 

“ And if you do not succeed ? ” 

‘‘ If I do not succeed — ” a quiver of impa- 
tience thrilled him — but \ must ! there is no 
question about it. The fight may be a long 
and stubborn one, but it must end in victory.” 

“Why miistV^ the colonel insisted, with 
rather depressing intonation. “ I will not at- 
tempt to conceal from you my own belief that 
your application for divorce will be refused.” 

“ Refused ! upon what ground } ” de- 
manded Yandell, a trifle annoyed. 

The colonel slowly brushed a fleck of dust 
from his boot with his handkerchief, then re- 
plied with moving candor, 

“ Because I do not believe that your reasons 
will be found tenable in law. Although most 


’ Tivixt Love and Law, 229 

annoying in themselves, they are reasons both 
subtle and intangible to less sensitive minds ; 
and to my way of thinking, the cold, legal 
summing-up of the Court will amount to 
just this — ‘ Here is a man who wishes to be 
freed from his lawful wife because he is in 
love with another woman and desires to 
marry her.’ ” 

“Why, Colonel, you do not think that I 
intend to drag Margaret into the divorce 
courts.^” Yandell exclaimed, with a show of 
resentment. 

“No, you do not; but Mrs. Yandell will. 
The facts are that I foresee that Margaret will 
be the choice morsel which she will roll under 
her tongue with appetizing flavor to scandalize 
you ; and I think it well to prepare you for 
that disagreeable result.” 

“It would be damnable!” Yandell burst 
forth. Then, with quick apology to Mrs. 
Douglas — “ I beg your pardon^ but I cannot 
help feeling that such a step would be un- 
worthy even a fiend.” 

“And yet I believe that my brother is 
right,” returned Mother Hetty, whose gentle 


230 ' Twixt Love and Law. 

face looked out from beneath its white crown 
with a certain benignant anxiety. “ It would 
be the strongest objection that Mrs. Yandell 
could put in against granting you your free- 
dom, and the most annoying.” 

Yandell strode up and down the room, until 
Margaret laid her magnetic, restraining hand 
upon his arm, saying, 

“ And what of that ? Do we not cast our 
lives together for better or worse ” 

Yandell’s hand closed over hers with his 
characteristic gesture. 

“You are a noble woman,” he said, with a 
pressure which had the effect of fine music, 
sending enthralling rills aplay upon her heart- 
cords ; “ but it hurts me like a death wound, to 
think that she or anyone would dare to flaunt 
your name suspiciously.” 

She smiled with that deep, rich indescrib- 
able wistfulness which was so distinctly her 
own. 

“ Alex, you forget that I am prepared for 
whatever may come ; that I have no fear while 
you love me.” 

“ But this would seem such a needless con- 


'Twixt Love and Law. 


231 

tingent that I am almost compelled to reject 
it,” he said, vehemently. 

“ Yet I am sure that it will be made to serve 
a double purpose against you,” Colonel Con- 
ant replied, firmly. 

Yandell began again somewhat gloomily, 

“For myself I do not care, but for Marga- 
ret—” 

She interrupted him with a voice of passion- 
ate assurance. 

“ It will be all the same to me,” she said, 
“for all roads will lead to one end — our- 
selves.” 

“ That is settled,” he said, almost fiercely, 
“ and I suppose that there is little use in discus- 
sing possible expedients, for we may be sure 
of the worst. But what must be, must ! There 
was no way but to apply for the divorce and 
await the consequences.” 

“ Has it never occurred to you, Yandell, 
that it might have been better to try and effect 
some sort of arrangement with her by which 
she would apply for the divorce ? ” the colonel 
asked. 

“ That would have been out of the question. 


232 "Twixt Love and Law. 

She is bitterness itself toward me since the 
incident of the painting, and would listen to 
nothing. You can judge of the extent of it 
when I tell you that upon recovering from that 
miserable, self-inflicted wound, she declared to 
me that she would willingly have died, to 
leave me under the suspicion of having been 
her murderer.” , 

“ What a vindictive and unnatural heart she 
must have ! ” Margaret ‘replied, shuddering 
closer to him, as if in protection. 

“ She has always shown an irritating and un- 
reasoning spirit toward me, which has in- 
creased in bitterness all through these later 
years; but I believe that it has now culminated 
in absolute hatred. Since that last experience 
in physical suffering, she has been intoler* 
able. Indeed, I am prepared for anything 
cruel,” he continued, with desperateness — ’ for 
anything — except to be stabbed through this 
dear girl.” 

Yandell drew Margaret’s head to his shoul- 
der tenderly, and pressed the open palm of his 
strong right hand against her upturned cheek. 


' Tzvixt Love and Lazv. 233 

“You do not think that she still loves you?” 
the colonel ventured. 

“ I do not think that she ever really loved 
me ; she is incapable of it. She felt a certain 
kind of pride in the fact that I was her hus- 
band, and I had a species of coarse physical 
attraction for her ; beyond this she has always 
been maddeningly jealous and suspicious. It 
is not an easy matter for me to say this, even 
to you, Colonel, but justice to myself demands 
it. The woman has never been a wife to me 
in a single one of the nameless relations that 
elevate union into the dignity of marriage. 
Roy is the only feature of my long bondage 
that makes the memory endurable.” 

Yandell’s brow grew grave. He sat with 
thoughtful eyes bent upon space, as if trying 
to divine what the end of all these miserable 
complications would be. 

The door opened and a servant entered. 

“There are two gentlemen in the hall wish- 
ing to see Mr. Yandell,” he announced. 

“ Gentlemen to see me ! ” Yandell ex- 
claimed, starting to his feet. “ Their cards.” 

“ They sent no cards, and said that you 


234 'Twixt Love and Law. 

would not know their names ; at first they 
insisted upon following me in here.” 

The colonel and Yandell exchanged quick 
glances. 

“ I do not understand who they can be,” 
Yandell said, hurriedly. “ I mentioned this 
trip to no one.” 

Then, turning to the servant : “ Say that I 
will come at once.” 

“ Rather show them in here,” said the 
colonel, laying a firm hand upon YandelFs 
shoulder, a certain nervous apprehension in 
his voice. 

The servant bowed and retired. 

The two men entered almost immediately. 
“ We are sorry to intrude,” began one of 
them, “ but we must do our duty. Which 
is Mr. Yandell ? ” 

“That is my name,” said Yandell, rather 
haughtily. 

The men looked from Margaret to Mrs. 
Douglas, almost apologetically. 

“ The ladies—” 

“That is all right,” said Yandell; “state 
your business.” 


'Twixt Love and Law. 235 

And still the man seemed to be covered 
with a certain embarrassment. 

“ It is unpleasant business to state in the 
presence of ladies,” he said, '‘but we must 
do our duty, sir,” 

Yandell bowed coldly. 

“ We are called upon to serve a warrant for 
your arrest.” 

“ What ! ” exclaimed Yandell, in a tone of 
imperious amazement ; while Mrs. Douglas 
and Margaret both uttered little shocked cries 
of indignation. 

“That is the size of it, sir; you are our 
prisoner.” 

The colonel, who was wrought up to a 
pitch of absolute calmness, came forward with 
the most elaborate courtesy. 

“Begging pardon, gentlemen, but Mr. 
Yandell is my guest, and your intrusion into 
this house in the garb of private citizens on 
such a mission as this, is something that I 
must demand shall be explained.” 

The leader of the two threw aside his long 
coat, displaying the badge of an officer. 

“ You shall have the explanation, sir ; T am 



doing no more than my duty, and that as 
I quietly as possible ; because it ain’t any advan- 

; tage to us to make a noise about these things. 

V An indictment has been found against this 

man, who is arrested on the charge of assault 
i’ with intent to kill.” 

I Good God ! ” exclaimed Yandell, with 

' drenched forehead, “was there ever such an 

iV infamous outrage perpetrated on an honest 

1;' man before?” 

/ “ Sorry for you, sir ! but we ain’t judge nor 

• jury; and you’ll have to come with us,” said 

the spokesman of the two. 

; But Margaret flew between the officers and 

j Yandell with eyes ablaze, and the fierce agony 

1 of outraged love contorting every feature. 

1 She M^as as dangerous in this mood as a Rizpah 

t; protecting the bodies of her sons from the 

j attack of vultures. 

> “ You shall not touch him ! ” she cried ; 

1 “ this is fiendish ! ” 

“ We don’t know nothing about that,” said 
the officer. “ We’ve got to do our duty — 

J these gentlemen know that.” 

i Yandell, however, had thrown a strong arm 

I 

i 

ij 

■ ' 

If 

i I . 


'Twixt Love and Law. 237 

about Margaret’s waist, and he whispered a 
word in her ear, whereupon she clung to him, 
sobbing tearlessly ; while poor Mother Hetty, 
a picture of perplexity and despair, sat help- 
lessly turning over the books on the table at 
her elbow. 

The colonel took a few short turns up and 
down the room, with breath coming in short, 
hard gusts of conscious impotency. 

“ We don’t want to hurry you, sir, but we 
had better be getting off, seeing as you have 
to go with us,” said the officer. 

Still Margaret clung about Yandell’s neck 
in quivering, piteous misery. It seemed as if 
her heart was breaking. 

The colonel slipped a sum of money un- 
noticed into the officer’s hand, and said in an 
undertone : 

“ He will be ready in a few moments.” 

The men understood, and retired to a cor- 
ner of the room. 

“ This charge must have been preferred by 
your wife,” said the colonel to Yandell, in a 
low voice. 

“ Yes, it is her work,” he replied, with sav- 


238 'Tivixt Love and Law. 

age emphasis. “ It has been done to disgrace 
me and drag us all through the filth of a 
newspaper scandal. She can hope to gain 
nothing by it ; it will be easy enough to prove 
my innocence.” 

“ That is the point ! Will it } There were 
no witnesses to prove ; as I understand it, you 
were alone.” 

“Yes, we were alone,” admitted Yandell, 
with a rather ghastly sense of the fact that 
it would be his word against that of his wife, 
with the balance of the evidence in her favor. 
Like the sudden summing-up of all the hap- 
penings of a lifetime which is said to occur 
to a drowning person, Yandell recalled the 
events of that wretched morning; and he saw, 
as if by a psychic foreshadowing of public 
opinion, that what had happened to Gerta 
Yandell was the very last out of a thousand 
possibilities which would appeal to the matter- 
of-fact common-sense of a jury as likely to 
occur by pure accident. The most obtuse 
man among them would be likely to believe 
that he had wished her out of the way, and 
had in a fit of passion, if not cold-bloodedly. 


' Twixt Love and Law. 


239 

made an attack upon her*, and his relations 
to Margaret would go to prove that theory. 

The sweat of irrepressible anguish broke 
out upon him as he pictured the loathsome 
and brutal manner in which Margaret’s purity 
and sweetness would be dragged through the 
newspapers and courts, handled by coarse 
men on street corners and in hotel lobbies, 
discussed by sporting men over their wine at 
the clubs, and society women in their boudoirs 
and salons. He shrank from the involuntary 
picture of her degradation, ignoring the dan- 
gers of his own situation in the mental con- 
templation of the bitterness which she would 
be made to endure because of himself. The 
hideousness of the probability that a wink and 
smothered jeer would follow her footsteps in 
public places smote upon his heart like the 
burning touch of the formless, accursed spirit 
of sin, which carries the blast of hell in its 
breath. He sank, nerveless and dispirited, 
upon a sofa, burying his face in his hands, 
while a quick succession of groans burst from 
him. 

Margaret threw herself upon the floor beside 


240 'Twixt Love and Law. 

him, twining an arm over his neck, her face 
nestled close to his own. 

“Darling, darling!” she cried, with ap- 
pealing love, forgetful of her surroundings. 
“ Alex, darling, do not grieve ; everything 
will come out all right — I know it will I 
God would not allow evil to triumph so 
cruelly. You must keep up your faith and 
courage for my sake, love I — for my sake — 
for Margaret, Alex ! ” 

Still the dry, anguished sobs shook his 
frame, as giant trees are shaken in the clutch 
of a devastating whirlwind. 

The colonel was deeply moved. “ Come, 
come, Yandell,” he said, rather moistly, “bear 
up like a man I You will find some way to 
prove your innocence of this outrageous ac- 
cusation.” 

Yandall leaped to his feet. 

“ Margaret, Margaret, do you think me 
capable of whimpering like a schoolboy over 
my own misfortunes. It is hers — Margaret’s ! 
What is proving my innocence to saving her 
from the venomous tongues of sleuth-hounds, 
who will seek to rend her reputation and fair 


'Twixt Love and Law, 241 

fame limb and joint. Oh, if I could save her 
from all connection with this affair, I would 
gladly suffer the penalty of any crime that the 
law might fasten upon me.” 

His hands were clenched, and great knots 
like whipcords stood out upon his forehead. 
A sudden light, like the illumination from the 
sword-flame of the cherubim set to guard the 
approach to Eden, up sprang in Margaret’s 
face. For a moment it seemed as if her^soul 
communed with that of an angel of faith and 
mercy, whose words were molten comfort, 
showing the way through the miserable laby- 
rinths of hatred and darkness which seemed to 
hopelessly encompass love. 

Margaret reached her two hands to Van- 
dell’s shoulders, looking deep into his gloomy 
eyes, and said, solemnly : 

“ I believe we shall both come through this 
ordeal scathless. I do not fear the world. 
We are in the hands of God. Through error 
He has led us into light ; through injustice I 
believe that we may trust Him.” 

Yandell was moved and comforted by her 
words. Although not a religious man there 
46 


242 ' Twixt Love and Law. 

was something infinitely sustaining in her sud- 
den spiritual translations. He caught the 
spirit of her exalted faith. 

“ God grant that you may be right, Mar- 
garet,” he said. 

“I must be right. This charge is pre- 
posterous! No man in his right mind could 
believe that you would be capable of such a 
cowardly act. It does not even seem possible 
that anyone should suppose that you could 
want her out of the way, when the world is 
wide enough for all of us. People see such 
things so strangely,” she said, with pathetic 
conviction. 

“They certainly do,” Yandell admitted, 
“ but this accusation is so entirely unjust that 
I believe my faith in the triumph of eternal 
right is superior to the logic of any develop- 
ments that I can foresee.” 

He paused, and looked at Margaret long 
and steadily. 

“You will save me, Margaret. I believe 
that I could conquer the very Prince of Evil 
himself while my courage is nerved by your 
faith and love. Good-bye, dear heart,” he 


' Twixt Love and Law. 243 

whispered, pressing both of her hands in his, 
“ Good-bye, and God be with you.” 

He turned away from her quickly to hide 
the emotion which shook him. 

“ I am ready,” he said to the colonel. 

Colonel Conant walked over to the corner 
to which the officers had discreetly retired, 
with faces turned away. 

“ We are ready. I shall go with my friend,” 
he said. “ This is a case that admits bail ? ” 

“ Certainly,” one of the officers replied. 
“ The woman’s injuries have not proved fatal 
— nor they ain’t going to.” 

“ No ; she is living, and seems likely to live 
until she has killed everybody else,” the col- 
onel replied, grimly. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


It would perhaps seem needless to state 
that the full extent of what had happened 
to Yandell did not come home to Margaret 
until after he had gone. 

At the moment of his arrest, she had 
sensed nothing but the immediate outrage 
and injustice of the accusation against him. 
The possibility that he could really rest 
under the horrible suspicion of having at- 
tempted his wife’s life did not appeal to 
her in the excitement of the moment, and 
knowing nothing of the workings of criminal 
law, she honestly believed that he would 
return to her in a few hours a free man. 

But Mrs. Yandell’s lawyer had laid his 
plans too shrewdly for his victim to escape. 
Yandell was really under a serious cloud, as 
he and the colonel found out to their horror 
and indignation when they reached New York. 

244 


' Twixt Love and Law. 245 

The demand that Yandell should be admitted 
to bail was strenuously opposed by his wife’s 
counsel ; and the case against him had been 
worked up so cunningly in advance that it 
took the most unremitting efforts, together 
with the liberal use of money, to save him 
from incarceration in the Tombs. 

The colonel did not return to Glenmere, as 
he felt that Yandell needed the support and 
sympathy of his presence through his trying 
ordeal. But he advised Mrs. Douglas and 
Margaret to remain, thinking it better than for 
them to come up to their town house. 

The newspapers, always on the alert for 
choice sensations (as indeed it is their busi- 
ness to be, the people demanding it), were 
ablaze with this latest society scandal. At 
first Margaret was only hinted at, because 
nothing was really known about the affair 
between herself and Yandell by any persons 
except those most interested to keep her 
name quiet ; but some enterprising reporters 
got wind of the place where Yandell was 
arrested, and went down to Glenmere, and 
by assiduously working the country-folks, 


246 ' Twixt Love and Law. 

servants, and guests, following the trail of 
possibility backward for a year through the 
mazes of change which had characterized 
Yandell’s movements and her own, they pres* 
ently had a story wrought out which was 
blood-curdling in its ingenuity and imagina- 
tive genius. 

Of course sympathy was with the poor, 
wronged wife — whose dearest friends, by 
the way, would have passed her by without 
recognizing the newly endowed character 
for lamb-like, forbearing, long-suffering virtue. 

Margaret was the traitorous Delilah who 
had shorn a Sampson of his moral strength, 
bringing him to this pass, where he stood 
before the bar of justice in the character 
of a would-be murderer. The newspapers 
paraded pictures with — “ The Unscrupulous 
Woman Who Did It,” and other equally 
exciting comments attached — pictures which 
carried a grain of comfort to suffering hearts, 
in the certainty that no one would ever recog- 
nize the victim from them. 

Clergymen preached whole sermons against 
the infamous woman who had forced herself 


’ Tivixt Love and Law. 247 

beneath the sacred portals of an ideal home, 
shattering its gods of love, faith, and virtue* 
as she went, while they drew vivid and highly- 
colored word-pictures of the wife, whose crown 
of sainthood had descended ready-made from 
angels’ hands. Moralists wrote double- 
leaded essays for the journals, in which they 
exalted the nobility of the wife and the 
sacredness of her rights, while enforcing the 
great moral lesson that law is marriage ; nor 
did they lose the golden opportunity to deplore 
the fact that the tendency of the law-makers 
is toward multiplying legal means of escape 
for the unfortunates who find, in bitterness 
of spirit, that they have entered into the 
marriage relation without justification. 

But neither clergymen nor .laymen were 
found to raise their voices against the pitiable 
custom which sanctifies loveless union at the 
altar, depriving helpless, unborn children of 
their birthright in the world. 

What Margaret suffered during this season 
of moral scourging I need not attempt to 
describe. It sometimes seemed to her that 
the very face of a pitying God had been 


248 'Twixt Love and Law. 

turned away. Daily and hourly she searched 
her own soul for the lurking evil which is 
supposed to be the parent of sorrow, and day 
by day she saw that her heart was innocent 
of all criminal intentions toward her fellow- 
creatures. It was pure as the heart of a 
child — generous, forgiving, loving, and pas- 
sionate in its faithfulness, with tears for all 
misery, and smiles of sympathy for everybody’s 
joy. 

Of course the greater part of her suffering 
was because of Yandell’s horrible position 
as a suspected criminal, and the more she 
thought about it, the more impossible it 
seemed to her that a mother, however unloving, 
should have been able to so accuse the father 
of her children. 

Dwelling upon the matter, Margaret felt 
herself driven into appealing to Gerta Yandell 
to be true to the womanly traditions of tender- 
ness and mercy. She would beg her upon 
bended knees to spare Yandell, if not for his 
own sake, for that of their dead children. If 
she had one spark of womanly feeling in her 
breast, she must be susceptible of being 


^Twixt Love and Law. 249 

moved, and Margaret had made up her mind 
to move her. 

Leaving a note for Mother Hetty, she 
stealthily left Glenmere, and sought Gerta 
Yandell at her home in New York. It was 
with the greatest difficulty that she gained 
admittance to her presence without card or 
explanation — and the moment was embarrass- 
ing beyond words to both. 

Mrs. Yandell visibly paled when face to 
face with the woman to whom she well knew 
that she owed her life ; for it was Margaret’s 
unremitting and desperate devotion which had 
carried her safely over the dangerous crisis of 
fever. 

But who besides this impulsive, passionate 
pilgrim of ours would have thought of taking 
such a step ? It was the unexpectedness and 
surprise of it that affected Gerta Yandell be- 
yond the power of even her phlegmatic nature 
to control. 

“You remember me,” Margaret said, by 
way of introduction. “ I have certainly proven 
myself a friend.” 

She would have said more, but Mrs. Yan- 


250 'Twixt Love and Law. 

dell burst into a mirthless, nervous laugh. 

“ And now you have come to tell me why you 
did it — I have wondered all along. 

Margaret gazed at her in a species of blank 
surprise. 

“No, I have come to talk about other 
things,” she replied. “ I am glad that I was 
able to save your life.” It seemed perfectly 
natural to her to say this, not at all forced or 
strained ; she had not detected the irony of 
her enemy’s position toward her. 

“ Saved my life ! that is rich ! I am afraid 
that you do not read the newspapers, my dear, 
innocent friend.” 

Margaret flushed and paled, her breath . 
came feverishly. 

“ No, I do not read them now — I used to, 
but not now.” She had clasped her hands 
together, and faltering tears blurred her eyes. 

The advantage was with Mrs. Yandell. 

“ It might be better if you did, you would 
know then how the world regards your gen- 
erous efforts to save my life.’^ 

Margaret looked at her anxiously for a 


' Tzvixt Love and Law, 251 

moment, then a horrible revulsion of feeling 
took possession of her. 

Mrs. Yandell saw her advantage and cruelly 
followed it up. She saw that Margaret had 
caught her meaning, but that did not deter 
her from saying, with almost sardonic hatred : 

“Why did you spare me.? Nobody would 
have known it then — you must be a very baby- 
hearted creature to turn back at the ninth 
hour, just the kind of milk-and-water beauty 
that Yandell would be sure to like. I am not 
surprised at your influence over him.” 

Margaret had drawn herself proudly to- 
gether, and in her towering height and the 
honest scorn of her beautiful eyes there was 
something before which even the insolence of 
Gerta Yandell quailed. 

“Madam,” Margaret began, quite self-pos- 
sessed, “ I am not here to discuss the motives 
which took me to your bedside. I did not 
intend to presume upon your gratitude for any 
poor service that I have been permitted to 
render you ; I alluded to the matter as an 
earnest of my disinterested well-wishes toward 
you. I find myself humiliated and insulted — 


252 * Twixt Love and Law. 

not suspected, madam ; for you do not suspect 
me of anything — not even of the wish to win 
your husband from you.” 

Gerta Yandell writhed uneasily under the 
steady, magnetic, compelling gaze that Mar- 
garet had fastened upon her, and again 
laughed that irritating, suggestive laugh which 
had so nearly maddened Yandell through long 
years of life with her. 

Margaret, however, raised an imperious arm, 
and coming a step nearer with the suppressed 
passion of outraged dignity, she repeated, 
“You do not suspect me, madam; you know 
that I went to you to save your life, that I 
would have given my own to do it, if neces- 
sary, that my heart was single to that thought, 
no other. You know that, and I know that 
you know it; therefore all pretence between 
us is unmeaning.” 

For a moment Gerta YandelFs ever-ready 
irony was paralyzed and silenced by the supe- 
rior force of well-directed truth; and before 
she had recovered herself, Margaret con- 
tinued, 

“ It was you who drove your husband from 


'Twixt Love and Laiv. 253 

you, not I who won him ; and God knows 
that I pity your misfortune, for it was a mis- 
fortune not to be able to keep the love of such 
a man. I can understand your unhappiness, 
but not your injustice, your inhuman, un- 
womanly cruelty. That is diabolical ! I 
should think that you would be afraid to be 
alone with yourself.” 

In all her life Gerta Yandell had never 
experienced such a curdling, awesome fascina- 
tion as Margaret’s perfectly serious, low-voiced 
accusations had for her. She was not a suffi- 
ciently sensitive person to be subject to thrills 
and tremors — even of fear ; but she was grow- 
ing cold and uneasy, superstitiously so, under 
the concentrated, penetrating gaze which Mar- 
garet bent upon her. In the half-light of the 
shaded reception-room there was something 
almost supernatural about this pale-faced, tow- 
ering creature who had once saved her life ; 
it was as if a breath from her would again con- 
sign her shrinking soul to helpless trembling 
upon the verge of an open grave. Margaret 
herself was thrilling, intoxicated by the anni- 
hilating force of conscious justice ; every fibre 


254 'Twixt Love and Law. 

of her being was wrought up to the pitch of 
glowing courage ; she felt as she had some- 
times pictured that she might feel in the sud- 
den presence of a robber, if she were to wake 
up in the night and find one prowling about 
her chamber — as if, by rising in spiritual cour- 
age and approaching him fearlessly, brute-force 
must fall before the impalpable sense of the 
superiority of the indefinable. She had pict- 
ured such a wretch, huddled together, begging 
mercy at her feet ; and her determination to 
conquer Gerta Yandell, so far at least as to 
compel her to do her husband the justice of 
withdrawing her unfounded and damning 
charge against him, operated with the same 
mesmeric force which often holds a brutal 
nature in subjection to a spiritual one. 

Gerta Yandell undertook a weak defence, 
— to be silenced again. She said — with a pit- 
iable attempt to recover her usual air of easy, 
nonchalant sarcasm, 

“ If it was not to get an expression of my 
gratitude for your noble service, I am at a loss 
to know why you have come here.” 

“No,” Margaret replied, perfectly unvary- 


'Twixt Love and Law. 255 

ing in her attitude of control, “ you are not at 
a loss, madam. You know that I have come 
here to urge you to do your husband the jus- 
tice of withdrawing your infamous charge 
against him ; you know that he did not at- 
tempt your life, that the accusation had its 
foundation in malice and jealousy.” 

“Let him prove it, then!” Gerta Yandell 
said, with a very ugly expression. “ Let him 
prove it ! It is his word against mine — let 
him prove it.” 

Margaret felt her courage faltering, but she 
rose to the moment with appealing force. . 

“ It is not a question of proof between you 
and him, but of what you know to be true. 
You know that he did not attack you — that 
the accusation is false to the core. For the 
love of right, and the memory of your children, 
if you have the instincts of a woman, speak the 
truth while there is time.” 

Margaret had become all womanly, suppli- 
cating tenderness again ; and Gerta Yandell 
swiftly rallied her spirit of bitter hatred against 
her and him. 

“I will withdraw my accusation,” she said. 


256 Twixt Love and Law. 

with a horrible leer, hissing the rest of the 
sentence from between her strong white teeth, 
“ if you will swear before heaven never to see 
him again.” 

Margaret sprang back as if stabbed to the 
heart, her eyes dilated with sudden, sickening 
fear. Gerta Yandell had the advantage again, 
and the curl of her baleful lips grew more and 
more cruel. 

“ You see how easily you can save him,” 
she said ; “ a noble creature like yourself could 
scarcely refuse so reasonable a request from a 
wife — the simple request that you will cease 
your amorous intrigues with her husband.” 

Margaret stood statue-still, with great, sol- 
emn, wide-staring eyes fixed upon the woman’s 
face. “I do not think you are human,” 
she said, slowly, at length, with a species of 
desperate conviction. “ I really do not think 
you are.” 

“ I am human enough not to pass my hus- 
band over to another woman’s arms with my 
blessing, if that is what you mean,” continued 
the pitiless creature. 


'Twixt Love and Law. 


257 

Margaret silently backed away toward the 
door. 

“ What ! are you going ? ” 

‘‘ Yes, I am going,” she replied, very quietly. 

“ Without saving him~when it is so easy ? ” 
sneered her tormentor. 

With her superb head poised in infinite 
dignity, and a mist of pathos mellowing her 
voice, Margaret replied, 

“You misunderstand me, madam; I did 
not come here to bargain with you to spare 
your husband. I did not come prepared to 
offer you a price, but to appeal to you as a 
woman, humanely, to do him justice ; neither 
more nor less than that ! I have failed — and 
of the rest God must be the judge.” 

“That all sounds very fine,” replied Mrs. 
Yandell ; “ but words are cheap. I have made 
you a fair offer.” 

“ And I have refused it,” replied Margaret, 
still speaking very quietly, “ because it would 
degrade me to accept it just as it does you 
to offer it.” Then, with passionate courage, 
“ If it were in your power or purpose to make 
your husband a happy man, I would go away 


17 


258 ' Twixt Love and Laiv. 

of my own free will — you should not need to 
ask me ! I would go to the uttermost parts of 
the earth, if by so doing, I could secure him 
the happiness of life ; but I will not bargain 
with you^ madam, to lend myself to your cruel 
purpose to stab him afresh. I have answered 
you — and now I bid you good-day.” 

Like a queen she swept from the room, fol- 
lowed by Gerta Yandell’s discordant laugh, 
and the low, hissing words, 

“ We shall see — we shall see.” 


CHAPTER XIV. 


Yandell’s trial was the sensation of the 
hour. People who had never entered a court- 
room before in their lives were in constant 
attendance to hear the developments of this 
surprising story of marital unfaithfulness and 
crime. 

Public opinion had been worked up to 
fever heat for the wife, and Yandell found 
himself at the beginning almost without 
friends. Never did a case open with more 
odds in favor of the guilty and against the 
wronged. 

The trial dragged along for several days. 
Servants and unscrupulous people generally 
were introduced to bolster up the complain- 
ant s position, and some most astounding 
evidence was developed to show that Mrs. 
Yandell had undergone a long course of cruel 
neglect and outrageous wrong. 

259 


26 o ' Twixt Love and Law. 

But through all the false and trying details 
of his wretched situation, Yandell bore him- 
self with a certain dignity which made a favor- 
able impression upon spectators and jury 
alike, and but a short time elapsed before 
sympathy began to veer perceptibly in his 
direction. 

Under cross-examination Mrs. Yandell be- 
came confused and irritable, and before the 
case for the prosecution was brought to a close 
she had broken down utterly, contradicting 
herself and making a general fiasco of the 
whole proceeding. 

The crowning event of the trial was the 
testimony given by the brusque old doctor, who 
had attended Mrs. Yandell at the time of the 
accident. His statements were terse and 
characteristic, and his own summing-up, in 
the profane but honest way he had of put- 
ting it, was, that it was a “ damned impossibil- 
ity ’’for any such an injury as the complainant 
had sustained to be other than self-inflicted 
— the effort to fasten an intended crime upon 
her husband was an “infernal” piece of 
malice. 


' Twixt Love and Law. 261 

The old man grew so violent that he came 
near being committed for contempt of court. 
But his rehearsal of the manner in which the 
toy dagger had been found grasped in the 
complainant’s right hand, made a marked sen- 
sation. 

The judge’s charge to the jury was a string 
of mild platitudes offered in a half-hearted 
way. The men, without a leaving their seats, 
found a verdict of “ Not guilty.” 

Gerta Yandell had played a desperate 
part, and she had failed — miserably, weakly. 
Her jealous rage against her husband for 
bringing an action for divorce had been the 
incentive to try and fix a crime upon him. 
Her conventional, selfish soul had shrunk in 
horror and trembling from being pointed out 
as a divorced wife, and she felt that the end 
of all she had lived for would have come 
when she no longer enjoyed the protection 
and prestige of the fact that Yandell was her 
husband. 

It was not outraged love, but affrighted 
pride that had taken umbrage at his act ; and 
to have fixed a miserable suspicion and 


262 *Twixt Love and Law, 

the penalty of it upon him would have robbed 
the situation of half its sting, because popular 
sympathy would still have been with her. 
But the misguided woman found too late that 
justice sometimes rises in majesty to rebuke 
evil passions. She was a pitiably unhappy 
woman, and as she stood in the midst -of the 
desolation which she had been slowly bring- 
ing down upon herself through long and 
bitter years, one could not forbear asking — 
Is not the heart that is suspicious, cruel, and 
selfish, that sows tares where roses might have 
been made to bloom, more to be commiserated 
than despised ? 

I am sure that Yandell felt it so that 
memorable hour when he walked forth from 
the gloom and oppression of the court-room — 
a free man. 

Not even the thought of the probable years 
of happiness that lay before him could save 
the bitterness of the recollection, that this 
woman who had so unjustly degraded him 
had been his wife, the mother of his children, 
and the one being from whom he might reason- 
ably have expected sympathy and confidence. 


'Twixt Love and Law. 263 

While Yandell looked forward to a future of 
purest joy with Margaret, the thought of 
union with her being both holy and satisfying, 
there was a certain bitter, poignant regret 
in the fact that the pathway to hope was 
strewn with shattered ideals and broken faith. 
The recollection of the miserable, lonely 
woman whose bitterness had been her own 
choosing, would always prove a source of 
sorrow amid his happiest realizations. Cruel, 
vindictive, selfish, and unreasonable as she 
had shown herself toward him, Yandell’s heart 
still throbbed with regret and pity, and he 
would have nothing less than the fullest 
generosity meted out to the wretched woman 
who had been his wife, when it came to the 
question of the settlement of his property. 

Roy was taught to believe that his mother 
was in all ways worthy of his respect and de- 
votion ; indeed, his father endeavored to im- 
bue the boy with the idea that the unholy 
charges against himself had been the result 
of a misunderstanding, and that the separation 
was because of mutual differences, which 


264 '‘Twixt Love and Law. 

in no way detracted from the dignity of 
either. 

The next time that Yandell saw Margaret 
he was a free man legally, no less than mor- 
ally. It was a clear, beautiful day in early 
January ; the mantle of winter lay over the 
frozen earth — a newly-fallen mantle of pure 
and unsullied white, typical of his own pure 
love. He came to Glenmere — the colonel 
had not opened his town house for the season 
— in the dazzling glory of a radiant morning, 
which set every snow-jewel upon trees and 
shrubs scintillating and glistening like unto 
the gleam and splendor of the gems that are 
set in the golden gates of Paradise. 

He left his horse at the lodge below the 
park, and came walking up to the Castle as if 
in delicious lingering over the anticipation of 
Margaret’s greeting. The future was so sure 
to him now, that he purposely prolonged 
the moments of expectancy, loth to lose a 
single sensation of love’s blissful dream. A 
light rain had hardened the surface of the 
snow, and as he walked over the crisp, frozen 
crust, drawing in long exhilarating breaths of 


' Twixt Love and Law. 265 

pure ozone, the memory of all that had gone 
before, in the first days of their passion, came 
over him. He recalled the several irresistible 
midnight meetings between Margaret and 
himself in this very park, upon occasions when 
soul and sense had refused to be stilled by 
the voice of conventional reasoning ; he 
recalled their unhappy separations, when both 
had believed that an unfathomable abyss of 
hopelessness divided them ; he recalled 
thoughts, words, looks, hopes, fears, and 
despair under the trying circumstances of 
their earlier associations; and most of all, he 
recalled the fact that there had been neither 
indulgence nor crime to obtrude its hideous- 
ness upon the present exalted hour — and for 
this, above everything, he thanked Heaven. 

There could be no doubt that the love be- 
tween himself and Margaret must be accept- 
able to the gods, for it was pure, deep, and 
abiding as life itself — love which had been 
sanctified by suffering, proving its right to 
triumphant fulfilment by bravely conquering 
all selfish and ignoble promptings. But as 
Yandell remembered the long years during 


266 'Ttuixt Love aud Law, 

which he had stoutly maintained that all 
divorce was legally and morally wrong, there 
did come back to him just a twinge of re- 
morse for hasty judgments upon others, who 
for all he could know, had taken the step, 
under circumstances justifiable as those gov- 
erning his own fate. 

Love had taught him the divine lesson of 
charity, and it was a singular coincidence, he 
remarked mentally, that the little god should 
have triumphed by virtue of a conquered 
prejudice which had amounted to bigotry in 
his earlier years. 

The few small “ isms ” which most of us 
come to believe in from experience, or lack of 
it, are apt to constitute the only logic of life 
which we are ready as individuals to accept ; 
and it sometimes needs a powerful touch 
upon the hidden springs of the inner being, to 
set the eternal fountains of sympathy, charity, 
and justice flowing towards our fellow-crea- 
tures. 

Yandell’s coming had been expected at the 
Castle for several days, but the day and hour 
had not been fixed, so that he gave the colonel 


' Twixt Love and Law. 267 

and Mrs. Douglas a rather pleasant morning 
surprise. Both received him fondly, as if he 
were a returned son, and there were tears of 
sympathy in the dear old lady’s eyes as she 
w'elcomed him, for she had learned to regard 
his splendid manly character with affection 
and pride 

When Margaret came down to the library , 
he was alone, and waiting for her just inside 
the door. She came in quickly, with the glad 
joy of love’s anticipation on her face. 

He opened his arms without a word, the 
intense longing of his overflowing heart 
breathing from lips and eyes. 

But she simply put her two hands into his, 
and holding herself off from him at arms- 
length, searched his face with steady, glowing 
eyes, which became tremulous with emotion as 
she looked. 

“ You have suffered, Alex,” she said, with 
solemn conviction, when she had drunk in 
every subtle shading of change which tiihe 
and trouble had wrought on his dearly be- 
loved features and expression. Reaching one 
of her hands to his snowy locks, she lifted 


268 ' Twixt Love and Law, 

the heavy mass, allowing her fingers to nestle 
therein, while she repeated once more, “ You 
have suffered.” 

“ Yes, dear heart,” he said, thrillingly, “ I 
have suffered — but that is past. One perfect 
moment of the present blots out all.” 

Her fingers were still caressing his hair, 
and there was a sweetly wistful and serious 
expression about her mouth. 

“ I hope so, Alex. I have been thinking 
about it all for days, and I have thought what 
a terrible thing it would be if I should fail 
in making everything up to you. Alex, do 
you think I can do it.? Do you think 
I can make you forget all that long, dreary 
past ? ” 

There was ^ note of anxious beseeching in 
her tender voice, and eager yearning in the 
uplifted face. 

For answer, the strong man took her to 
his breast, holding her there with a pres- 
sure which was more eloquent than .words. 
All her little womanly misgivings dissolved 
beneath the intoxicating certainty of his 
masterful touch. She lay in the delicious 


’ Twixt Love and Law. 269 

langour of love’s rest, with drooped lids and 
ecstatic heart. 

“I will make up for everything— I will, 
Alex; I love you and I will make you happy, 
—I will make you happy,” she breathed, with 
soft caressing. 

“You have made me deliriously happy, 
dear heart,” he whispered, with moist lips 
pressed against her pink-tipped ear. 

That afternoon a quiet wedding took place 
at Glenmere. Yandell would brook no de- 
lays, but insisted that not a precious hour 
should be lost before Margaret became his 
wife. Theirs were not the nuptials for dis- 
play, for music, guests, and feasting. The 
usual concomitants of a bridal would have 
seemed sadly out of place for them. Their 
supreme wish was to come into the full pos- 
session of each other as quickly and quietly as 
possible. Display and publicity would have 
seemed unholy and sacrilegious. 

Margaret had a fancy that the ceremony 
should be performed within the ruined east 
wing, at the consecrated altar, and to this 
spot, amid the flooding sunshine of the 


2/0 ' Twixt Love and Law, 

splendid winter afternoon, the little bridal party 
of four took their way, followed by servants 
and retainers. The clergyman met them at 
the altar, and our beautiful Pilgrim of Passion 
was united, according to the legal and religious 
form of marriage, to the man to whom God 
had long since joined her love and faith. 


THE END. 


55 





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